tihvaxy  of  t^e  trheolo^fcd  ^cmimvy 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 
PRESENTED  BY 

The  Estate  of 
Rev.  Robert  0.  Kirkwood 


BX  6333  .M365  Y4  1905 
Maclaren,  Alexander,  1826- 
1910.  [ 

A  year's  ministry         i 


A   YEAR'S    MINISTRY 

FIRST    SERIES 


A  YEAR'S  MINISlfRY^p 


:j     :  'H, 


FIRST    SERIES       . 

Alexander    Maclaren     d,d. 


Orir,M 


FUNK   &  WAGNALLS   COMPANY 

NEW     YORK 
1905 


CONTENTS. 


fKRlfOH  PAGE 

L—The  Purifying  Influence  op  Hope        -       -  l 

n. — "  The  Bridal  of  the  Earth  and  Sky  "  -       -  13 
m.— The  Work  and  Armour  of  the  Children  of 

THE  Day                       27 

IV. — The  Last  Beatitude  of  the  Ascended  Christ  41 

V. — Luther — a  Stone  on  the  Cairn      -        •       -  55 
VI. — What  the  World  called  the  Church,  and 

What  the  Church  calls  Itself        -        -  69 

VII. — Faith  Conquering  the  World-        -        -       -  83 

VIII.— "In  Remembrance  of  Me"        -        ...  97 

IX.— How  to  Sweeten  the  Life  of  Great  Cities  109 

X.— The  Triple  Rays   which   make  the  White 

Light  of  Heaven         .....  123 

XI.— The  Secret  of  Gladness  .       -       •       •       .  137 

Xn. — Thi  Lesson  of  Memory    -       .       •       •       .  149 

Xni.— Nowl  Now!— Not  Bv-and-byb  ...  163 

XIV. — Salt  without  Savour       -       -       -       .       -  177 

XV. — Thb  Lamp  and  thr  Bushf(.      .        •       •       .  189 

XVL— Man's  True  Treasure  l^  Goo  •       -       *       -  203 


X^T:I.— QoD*8  True  Treasure  in  Mah  -       •       •       •219 

XVIII. The  Present  and  Future  Inheritance — God's 

IH  Us,  AND  Ours  in  God      .        -       -       -    281 

XIX.— The  Servant  of  the  Lord  and  His  BLBSSiva    245 

XX.— The  Gradual  Healing  of  the  Blind  Mam    -    261 

XXI.— The  Name  above  every  Name-        •       •       -271 

XXII.— The  Son  of  Man        ••--••    287 

XXIII. — Two  Fortresses-       ••••••    801 

XXIV.— A  Living  Sacrifice   -•••»•    318 
XXV.— What  Faith  makes  of  Death-       •  •    827 

XXVI.— How  thi  Little  may  bb  Used   to  Gp»  mmm 

Great 8W 


THE   PUEIFYING   INFLUENCE   OF   HOPE. 


SERMON  L 


THE  PURIFYING  INFLUENCE  OF  HOPE. 


And  erery  man  that  hath  thi«  hope  In  Him  purifleth  himself,  eren  as  He  is  p«re. 
1  John  iii.  3. 


That  is  a  very  remarkable  "  and  "  with  which  this 
ferse  begins.  The  Apostle  has  just  been  touching  the 
very  heights  of  devout  contemplation,  soaring  away  up 
into  dim  regions  where  it  is  very  hard  to  follow, — "  We 
shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is." 

And  now,  without  a  pauii^t^,  and  linking  his  thoughts 
together  by  a  simple  "  and  "  he  passes  from  the  unimagin- 
able splendours  of  the  Beatific  Vision  to  the  plainest 
practical  talk.  Mysticism  has  often  soared  so  high  above 
the  earth  that  it  has  forgotten  to  preach  righteousness, 
and  therein  has  been  its  weak  point.  But  here  is  the 
most  mystical  teacher  of  the  New  Testament  insisting  on 
plain  morality  as  vehemently  as  his  friend  James  could 
have  done. 

The  combination  is  very  remarkable.  Like  the  eagle 
he  rises,  and  like  the  eagle,  with  the  impetus  gained 
from  his  height,  he  drops  right  down  on  the  earth 
beneath  I 

b2 


4:       THE  PURIFYING  INFLUENCE  OF  HOPE. 

And  that  is  not  only  a  characteristic  of  St.  John'to 
teaching,  but  it  is  a  characteristic  of  all  the  New 
Testament  morality — its  highest  revelations  are  intensely 
practical.  Its  light  is  at  once  set  to  work,  like  the  sun- 
shine that  comes  ninety  millions  of  miles  in  order 
to  make  the  little  daisies  open  their  crimson-tipped 
Detals  ;  so  the  profoundest  things  that  the  Bible  has 
to  say  are  said  to  you  and  me,  not  that  we  may  know 
enly,  but  that  knowing  we  may  do,  and  do  because  we 
are. 

So  John,  here :  "  We  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we 
shall  see  Him  as  He  is."  "  And  " — a  simple  coupling- 
iron  for  two  such  thoughts — "  every  man  that  hath 
this  hope  in  Him," — that  is,  in  Christ,  not  in  himself,  as 
we  sometimes  read  it — "  every  man  that  hath  this  hope," 
founded  on  Christ,  "  purifies  himself  even  as  He  is 
pure." 

The  thought  is  a  very  simple  one,  though  sometimes 
it  is  somewhat  mistakenly  apprehended.  Put  into  its 
general  form  it  is  just  this  : — If  j^ou  expect,  and  expecting, 
hope  to  be  like  Jesus  Christ  yonder,  you  will  be  trying 
your  best  to  be  like  Him  here.  It  is  not  the  mere 
purifying  influence  of  hope  that  is  talked  about,  but  it  is 
the  specific  influence  of  this  one  hope,  the  hope  of 
ultimate  assimilation  to  Christ  leading  to  strenuous 
efforts,  each  a  partial  resemblance  of  Him,  here  and  now. 
And  that  is  the  subject  I  want  to  say  a  word  or  two 
about  this  morning. 

I. — First,  then,  notice  the  principle  that  is  here,  which 
is  the  main  thing  to  be  insisted  upon,  namely,  If  we  are 
to  be  pure,  we  must  purify  ourselves. 

There  are  two  ways  of  getting  like  Christ,  spoken 
about  in  the  context.  One  is  the  blessed  way,  that  is 
more  appropriate  for  the  higher  Heaven,  the  way  of 
assimilation   and   transformation  by  beholding — "  If  we 


THE   PURIFYING    INFLUENCE   OF    HOPE.  f) 

see  Him  "  we  shall  be  "  like  Him."  That  is  the  blessed 
method  of  the  Heavens.  Yes  !  but  even  here  on  earth  it 
may  to  some  extent  be  realised.  Love  always  breeds 
likeness.  And  there  is  such  a  thing,  here  on  earth  and 
now,  as  gazing  upon  Christ  with  an  intensity  of  affection, 
and  simplicity  of  trust,  and  rapture  of  aspiration,  and 
ardour  of  desire  which  shall  transform  us  in  some 
measure  into  His  own  likeness.  John  is  an  example  of 
that  for  us.  It  was  a  true  instinct  that  made  the  old 
painters  always  represent  him  as  like  the  Master  that 
he  sat  beside,  even  in  face.  Where  did  John  get  his 
style  from  .?  He  got  it  by  much  meditating  upon  Christ's 
words.  The  disciple  caught  the  method  of  the  Master's 
speech,  and  to  some  extent  the  manner  of  the  Master's 
vision. 

And  so  he  himself  stands  before  us  as  an  instance  of 
the  possibility,  even  on  earth,  of  this  calm,  almost  passive 
process,  and  most  blessed  and  holiest  method  of  getting 
like  the  Master,  by  simple  gazing,  which  is  the  gaze  of 
love  and  longinsr- 

But,  dear  brethren,  the  law  of  our  lives  forbids  that 
that  should  be  the  only  way  in  which  we  grow  like 
Christ.  "  First  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full  corn 
in  the  ear  "  was  never  meant  to  be  the  exhaustive,  all- 
comprehensive  statement  of  the  method  of  Christian 
progress.  You  and  I  are  not  vegetables  ;  and  the  Parable 
of  the  Seed  is  only  one  side  of  the  truth  about  the 
method  of  Christian  growth.  The  very  word  "  purify  " 
speaks  to  us  of  another  condition  ;  it  implies  impurity,  it 
implies  a  process  which  is  more  than  contemplation,  it 
implies  tne  reversal  of  existing  conditions,  and  not  merely 
the  growth  upwards  to  unattained  conditions. 

And  so  growth  is  not  all  that  Christian  men  need  ; 
they  need  excision,  they  need  casting  out  of  what  is  in 
them  ;  they  need  change  as  well  as  growth.     "  Purifying  " 


6  TmE   rLRlFYlNG   INl^'LUilliJCB  OF  HOi'B. 

they  need  because  they  are  impure,  and  growth  is  only 
half  the  secret  of  Christian  progress. 

Then  there  is  the  other  consideration,  viz.,  if  there  is  to 
be  this  purifying  it  must  be  done  by  myself.  "  Ah !" 
you  say,  "  done  by  yourself  ?  That  is  not  Evangelical 
teaching."  Well,  let  us  see.  Take  two  or  three  verses 
out  of  this  Epistle  which  at  first  sight  seem  to  be  con- 
tradictory of  this.  Take  the  very  first  that  bears  on  Caj 
subject: — "The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  His  Son  cleaiiscLh 
us  from  all  sin  "  (i.  7).  "  If  we  confess  our  sins  He  is 
faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins  and  to  cleanse  us 
from  all  unrighteousness  "  (iv.  9).  "  He  that  abideth  in 
Him  sinneth  not  "(iii.  6).  "  This  is  the  victory  that  over- 
cometh  the  world,  even  our  faith  "  (v.  4). 

Now,  if  you  put  all  these  passages  together,  and  think 
about  the  general  effect  of  them,  it  comes  to  this :  that 
our  best  way  of  cleansing  ourselves  is  by  keeping  firm 
hold  of  Jesus  Christ  and  of  the  cleansing  powers  that 
lie  in  Him.  To  take  a  very  homely  illustration — soap 
and  water  wash  your  hands  clean,  and  what  you  have 
to  do  is  simply  to  rub  the  soap  and  water  on  to  the  hand, 
and  bring  them  into  contact  with  the  foulness.  You 
cleanse  yourselves.  Yes  I  because  without  the  friction 
there  would  not  be  the  cleansing.  But  is  it  you,  or  is  it 
the  soap,  that  does  the  work  ?  Is  it  you  or  the  water 
that  makes  your  hands  clean  ?  And  so  when  God  comes 
and  says,  "  Wash  you,  make  you  clean,  put  away  the  evil 
of  your  doings,  your  hands  are  full  of  blood,"  He  says  in 
effect,  "  Take  the  cleansing  that  I  give  you  and  rub  it  in, 
and  apply  it  :  and  your  flesh  will  become  as  the  flesh  of 
a  little  child,  and  you  shall  be  clean." 

That  is  to  say,  the  very  deepest  word  about  Christian 
effort  of  self-purifying  is  this — keep  close  to  Jesus  Christ. 
You  cannot  sin  as  long  as  you  hold  His  hand.  To  have 
Him  with  you — I  mean  by  that  to  have  the  thoughts 


THE   PURIFYl-XG    INFLLEXCE   OF    HOPE.  7 

directed  to  Him,  the  love  turning  to  Him,  the  will  sub- 
mitted to  Him,  Him  consciously  with  us  in  the  day's 
work — to  have  communion  with  Jesus  Christ  is  like 
bringing  an  atmosphere  round  about  us  in  which  all  evil 
will  die.  If  you  take  a  fish  out  of  water  and  bring  it  up 
into  the  upper  air,  it  writhes  and  gasps,  and  is  dead 
presently  ;  and  our  evil  tendencies  and  sins,  drawn  up 
out  of  the  muddy  depths  in  which  ^hey  live,  and  brought 
up  into  that  pure  atmosphere  of  communion  with  Jesus 
Christ,  are  sure  to  shrivel  and  to  die,  and  to  disappear. 
We  kill  all  evil  by  fellowship  with  the  Master.  His 
presence  in  our  lives,  by  our  communion  with  Him,  is 
like  the  watch-fire  that  the  traveller  lights  at  night — it 
keeps  all  the  wild  beasts  of  prey  away  from  the  fold. 

Christ's  fellowship  is  our  cleansing,  and  the  first  and 
main  thing  that  we  have  to  do  in  order  to  make  ourselves 
pure  is  to  keep  ourselves  in  union  with  Him,  in  whom 
inhere  and  abide  all  the  energies  that  cleanse  men's  souls. 
Take  the  unbleached  calico  and  spread  it  out  on  the  green 
grass,  and  let  the  blessed  sunshine  come  down  upon  it, 
and  sprinkle  it  with  fair  water  ;  and  the  grass  and  the 
moisture  and  the  sunshine  will  do  all  the  cleansing,  and 
it  will  glitter  in  the  light  "  so  as  no  fuller  on  earth  can 
white  it." 

So  cleansing  is  keeping  near  Jesus  Christ.  But  it  is 
no  use  getting  the  mill-race  from  the  stream  into  your 
works  unless  you  put  wheels  in  its  way  to  drive.  And 
our  holding  ourselves  in  fellowship  with  the  Master  in 
that  fashion  is  net  all  that  we  have  to  do.  There  have  to 
be  distinct  and  specific  efforts,  constantly  repeated,  to 
subdue  and  suppress  individual  acts  of  transgression. 
We  have  to  fight  against  evil,  sin  by  sin.  We  have  not 
the  thing  to  do  all  at  once  ;  we  have  to  do  it  in  detail. 
It  is  a  war  of  outposts,  like  the  last  agonies  of  that 
Franco-Prussian  war,  when  the  Emperor  had  abdicated. 


8  THE  PURIFYING  INFLUENCE  OP  HOPB. 

and  the  country  was  really  conquered,  and  Paris  had 
yielded,  but  yet  all  over  the  face  of  the  land  combats  had 
to  be  carried  on. 

So  it  is  with  us.  Holiness  is  not  feeling  ;  it  is  charac- 
ter. You  do  not  get  rid  of  your  sins  by  the  act  of  Divine 
amnesty  only.  You  are  not  perfect  because  you  say  you 
are,  and  feel  as  if  you  were,  and  think  you  are.  God 
does  not  make  any  man  pure  in  his  sleep.  His  cleansing 
does  not  dispense  with  fighting,  but  makes  victory 
possible. 

Then,  dear  brethren,  lay  to  heart  this,  as  the  upshot  of 
the  whole  matter.  First  of  all,  let  us  turn  to  Him  from 
whom  all  the  cleansing  comes  ;  and  then,  moment  by 
moment,  remember  that  it  is  our  work  to  purify  ourselves 
by  the  strength  and  the  power  that  is  given  to  us  by  the 
Master. 

II.— The  second  thought  here  is  this  :  This  purifying 
of  ourselves  is  the  link  or  bridge  between  the  present  and 
the  future. — "Now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,"  says  John, 
in  the  context.  That  is  the  pier  upon  the  one  side  of  the 
gulf.  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,  but 
when  He  is  made  manifest  we  shall  be  like  Him."  That 
is  the  pier  on  the  other.  How  are  the  two  to  be  con- 
nected ?  There  is  only  one  way  by  which  the  present 
sonship  will  blossom  and  fruit  into  the  future  perfect 
likeness,  and  that  is  ;  if  we  throw  across  the  gulf,  by  God*B 
help  day  by  day  here  that  bridge  of  our  effort  after 
growing  likeness  to  Himself,  and  purity  therefrom. 

That  is  plain  enough,  I  suppose.  To  speak  in  somewhat 
technical  terms,  the  "law  of  continuity"  that  we  hear 
80  much  about,  runs  on  between  earth  and  Heaven. 
Which,  being  translated  into  plain  English,  is  but  this — 
that  the  act  of  passing  from  the  limitations  and  conditions 
of  this  transitory  life  into  the  solemnities  and  grandeurs 
of  that  future  does  not  altei-  a  man's  character,  though  it 


THE  PURIFYING  INFLUENCE   OF   HOPE.  » 

may  intensify  it.  It  does  not  make  him  different  from 
what  he  was,  though  it  may  make  him  more  of  what  he 
was,  whether  its  direction  be  good  or  bad. 

You  take  a  stick  and  thrust  it  into  water  ;  and  because 
the  rays  of  light  pass  from  one  medium  to  another  of  a 
different  density,  they  are  refracted  and  the  stick  seems 
bent ;  but  take  the  human  life  out  of  the  thick  coarse 
medium  of  earth  and  lift  it  up  into  the  pure  rarefied  air 
of  Heaven,  and  there  is  no  refraction  ;  it  runs  straight 
on.  Straight  on  I  The  given  direction  continues  ;  and 
in  whatever  direction  my  face  is  turned  when  I  die, 
thither  my  face  will  be  turned  when  I  live  again. 

Do  not  you  fancy  that  there  is  any  magic  in  cof&ns 
and  graves,  and  shrouds  to  make  men  different  from  their 
former  selves.  The  continuity  runs  clean  on,  the  rail 
goes  without  a  break,  though  it  goes  through  the  Mont 
Cenis  tunnel  ;  and  on  the  one  side  is  the  cold  of  the 
North,  and  on  the  other  the  sunny  South.  The  man  i0 
the  same  man  through  death  and  beyond. 

So  the  one  link  between  sonship  here  and  likeness  to 
Christ  hereafter  is  this  link  of  present,  strenuous  effort 
to  become  like  Him  day  by  day  in  personal  purity.  For 
there  is  another  reason,  on  which  I  need  not  dwell,  viz., 
unless  there  be  this  daily  effort  on  our  part  to  become 
like  Jesus  Christ  by  personal  purity,  we  shall  not  be  able 
to  "  see  Him  as  He  is."  Death  will  take  a  great  many 
veils  off  men's  hearts.  It  will  reveal  to  them  a  great  deal 
that  they  do  not  know,  but  it  will  not  give  the  faculty  of 
beholding  the  glorified  Christ  in  such  fashion  as  that  the 
beholding  will  mean  transformation.  "  Every  eye  shall 
see  Him,"  but  it  is  conceivable  that  a  spirit  shall  be  so 
immersed  in  self-love  and  in  godlessness  that  the  vision 
of  Christ  shall  be  repellent  and  not  attractive  ;  shall  have 
no  transforming  and  no  gladdening  power.  And  I  be- 
seech you  to  remember  that  about  that  vision,  as  about 


10  THE  PURIFYING  INFLUENCE  OF  HOPE. 

the  vision  of  God  Himself,  the  principle  stands  true ;  it 
18  "  the  pure  in  heart  that  shall  see  God  "  in  Christ.  And 
the  change  from  life  to  the  life  beyond  will  not  necessa- 
rily transform  into  the  image  of  His  dear  Son.  You 
make  a  link  between  the  present  and  the  future  by  cleansing 
your  hands  and  your  heai-ts,  through  faith  in  the  cleansing 
power  of  Christ,  and  direct  effort  at  holiness. 

III. — Now,  I  must  briefly  add  finally  :  that  this  self' 
cleansing  of  which  I  have  been  speaking  is  the  offspring 
and  outcome  of  that  "  hoi^e  "  in  my  text.  It  is  the  child 
of  hope.  Hope  is  by  no  means  an  active  faculty  generally. 
As  the  poets  have  it,  she  may  "  smile  and  wave  her  golden 
hair  ;"  but  she  is  not  in  the  way  of  doing  much  work  in  the 
world.  And  it  is  not  the  mere  fact  of  hope  that  generates 
this  effort ;  it  is,  as  I  have  been  trying  to  shew  you,  a 
certain  kind  of  hope — the  hope  of  being  like  Jesus  Christ 
when  "  we  see  Him  as  He  is.*' 

I  have  only  two  things  to  say  about  this  matter,  and 
one  of  them  is  this :  of  course,  such  strenuous  effort  of 
purity  will  only  be  the  result  of  such  a  hope  as  that, 
because  such  a  hope  will  fight  against  one  of  the  greatest 
of  all  the  enemies  of  our  efforts  after  purity.  There  is 
nothing  that  makes  a  man  so  down-hearted  in  his  work 
of  self -improvement  as  the  constant  and  bitter  experience 
that  it  seems  to  be  all  of  no  use  ;  that  he  is  making  so 
little  progress ;  that  with  immense  pains,  like  a  snaii 
creeping  up  a  wall,  he  gets  up,  perhaps,  an  inch  or  two, 
and  then  all  at  once  he  drops  down,  end  further  down 
than  he  was  before  he  started. 

Slowly  we  manage  some  little  patient  self-improve- 
ment ;  gradually,  inch  by  inch  and  bit  by  bit,  we  may 
be  growing  better,  and  then  there  comes  some  gust  and 
outburst  of  temptation  ;  and  the  whole  painfully  re- 
claimed soil  gets  covered  up  by  an  avalanche  of  mud  and 
stones,  that  we  have  to  remove  slowly,  barrow  load  by 


THE  PURIFYING   INFLUENCE  OF  HOPE.  11 

barrow  load.  And  then  we  feel  that  it  is  all  of  no  use  to 
strive,  and  we  let  circumstances  shape  us,  and  give  up  all 
thoughts  of  reformation. 

To  such  moods  then  there  comes,  like  an  angel  from 
Heaven,  that  holy,  blessed  message,  "Cheer  up,  man! 
*  We  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is  ; ' 
Every  inch  that  you  make  now  will  tell  then^  and  it 
it  not  all  of  no  use.  Set  your  heart  to  the  work,  it  is  a 
work  that  will  be  blessed  and  will  prosper." 

Again,  here  is  a  test  for  all  you  Christian  people,  who  say 
that  you  look  to  Heaven  with  hope  as  to  your  home  and  rest. 

A  great  deal  of  the  religious  contemplation  of  a  future 
state  is  pure  sentimentality,  and  like  all  pure  sentimen- 
tality is  either  immoral  or  non-moral.  But  here  the  two 
things  are  brought  into  clear  juxtaposition,  the  bright  hope 
of  Heaven  and  the  hard  work  done  here  below.  Now  is  that 
what  the  gleam  and  expectation  of  a  future  life  does  for  you  ? 

This  is  the  only  time  in  John's  Epistle  that  he  speaks 
about  hope.  The  good  man,  living  so  near  Christ,  finds 
that  the  present,  with  its  "  abiding  in  Him, "  is  enough 
for  his  heart.  And  though  he  was  the  Seer  of  the 
Apocalypse,  he  has  scarcely  a  word  to  say  about  the 
future  in  this  letter  of  his  and  when  he  does  it  is  for  a 
simple  and  intensely  practical  purpose,  in  order  that  he 
may  enforce  on  us  the  teaching  of  labouring  earnestly  in 
purifying  ourselves. 

My  brother,  is  that  your  type  of  Christianity  ?  Is  that 
the  kind  of  inspiration  that  comes  to  you  from  the  hope 
that  steals  in  upon  you  in  your  weary  hours,  when 
sorrows,  and  cares,  and  changes,  and  loss,  and  disappoint- 
ments, and  hard  work  weigh  you  down,  and  you  say,  "It 
would  be  blessed  to  pass  hence  "  ?  Does  it  set  you  harder 
at  work  than  anything  else  can  do  ?  Is  it  all  utilised  ? 
Or,  if  I  might  use  such  an  illustration,  is  it  like  the 
electricity  of  the  Aurora  Borealis,  that  paints  your  winter 


12  THE  PITRIFTrNG  INFLUBNCE  OF  HOPB. 

gky  with  vanishing,  useless  splendours  of  crimson  and 
blue  ?  or,  have  you  got  it  harnessed  to  your  tramcars, 
lighting  your  houses,  driving  sewing-machines,  doing 
practical  work  in  your  daily  life  ?  Is  the  hope  of  Heaven, 
and  of  being  like  Christ,  a  thing  that  stimulates  and  stirs 
us  every  moment  to  heroisms  of  self-surrender  and  to 
strenuous  martyrdom  of  self-cleansing  ? 

All  is  gathered  up  into  the  one  lesson.  First,  let  us  go 
to  that  dear  Lord  whose  blood  cleanseth  from  all  sin,  and 
let  us  say  to  Him,  "  Purge  me,  and  I  shall  be  clean  ;  wash 
me,  and  I  shall  be  whiter  than  snow."  And  then,  receiv- 
ing into  our  hearts  the  powers  that  purify,  in  His  love 
and  His  sacrifice  and  His  life,  "  having  these  promises  ** 
and  these  possessions,  "  Dearly  beloved,  let  ns  cleanse 
ourselves  from  all  filthiness  of  flesh  and  spirit,  perf ectinf 
holiness  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord.** 


"THE   BRIDAL   OF   THE    EARTH   AXD   SKY/' 


SERMON  IL 


THE  BRIDAL  OP  THE   EARTH   AND  SKY. 


"Mercy  and  truth  are  met  together;  righteousness  and  peace  have  kiased  eacli 
other.  Truth  shall  spring  out  of  the  eartii ;  and  righteousness  shall  look  down  ft-om 
heaven.  Yea,  the  Lord  shall  give  that  which  is  good  ;  and  our  land  shall  jield  her 
increase.  Righteousness  shall  go  before  him ;  and  shall  set  ua  in  the  way  of  his  stops." 
Psalm  Ixxiv.  10-13. 


This  is  a  lovely  and  highly  imaginative  picture  of  the 
reconciliation  and  reunion  of  God  and  man,  "  the  bridal 
of  the  earth  and  sky." 

The  Poet-Psalmist,  who  seems  to  have  belonged  to  the 
times  immediately  after  the  Return  from  the  Exile,  in 
strong  faith  sees  before  him  a  vision  of  a  perfectly  har- 
monious co-operation  and  relation  between  God  and  man. 
He  is  not  prophesying  directly  of  Messianic  times.  The 
vision  hangs  before  him,  with  no  definite  note  of  time 
upon  it.  He  hopes  it  may  be  fulfilled  in  his  own  day  ; 
he  is  sure  it  will,  if  only,  as  he  says,  his  countrymen 
"  turn  not  again  to  folly."  At  all  events,  it  will  be  fulfilled 
in  that  far-off  time  to  which  the  heart  of  every  prophet 
turned  with  longing.  But,  more  than  that,  there  is  no 
reason  why  it  should  not  be  fulfilled  with  every  man,  at 
the  moment. 


16    "  THE  BRIDAL  OP  THE  EARTH  AND  SKY.'* 

It  is  the  ideal,  to  use  modern  language,  of  th©  relations 
between  Heaven  and  earth.  Only  that  the  Psalmist 
believed  that  as  sure  as  that  there  was  a  God  in  Heaven, 
Who  is  likewise  a  God  working  in  the  midst  of  the  earth, 
the  ideal  might  become,  and  would  become,  a  reality. 

So,  then,  I  take  it,  these  four  verses  all  set  forth  sub- 
stantially the  same  thought,  but  with  slightly  different 
modifications  and  applications.  They  are  a  four-fold 
picture  of  how  Heaven  and  earth  ought  to  blend  and 
harmonise.  This  four-fold  representation  of  the  one 
thought  is  what  I  purpose  to  consider  now. 

I. — To  begin  with,  then,  take  the  first  ^  erse  : — "  Mercy 
and  truth  are  met  together,  righteousness  and  peace  have 
kissed  each  other."  We  have  here  the  heavenly  tivin 
sisters^  and  the  earthly  pair  that  corresponds,  **  Mercy 
and  Truth  are  met  together  " — that  is  one  personification  ; 
•*  Righteousness  and  Peace  have  kissed  each  other "  is 
another.  It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  these  four  great 
qualities  are  to  be  regarded  as  all  belonging  to  God,  or  as 
all  belonging  to  man,  or  as  all  common  both  to  God  and 
man.  The  first  explanation  is  the  most  familiar  one,  but 
I  confess  that,  looking  at  the  context,  where  we  find 
throughout  an  interpenetration  and  play  of  reciprocal 
action  as  between  earth  and  Heaven,  I  am  disposed  to 
think  of  the  first  pair  as  sisters  from  the  Heavens,  and 
the  second  pair  as  the  earthly  sisters  that  correspond  to 
them.  Mercy  and  Truth — two  radiant  angels,  like  virgins 
in  some  solemn  choric  dance,  linked  hand  in  hand, 
issue  from  the  sanctuary  and  move  amongst  the  dim 
haunts  of  men,  making  "  a  sunshine  in  a  shady  place," 
and  to  them  there  come  forth,  linked  in  a  sweet  embrace, 
another  pair  whose  lives  depend  on  the  lives  of  their 
elder  and  heavenly  sisters.  Righteousness  and  Peace. 
And  so  these  four,  the  pair  of  heavenly  origin,  and  the 
answering  pair  that   have   sprung  into    being  at  their 


17 

coming  upon  earth  ; — these  four,  banded  in  perfect  accord, 
move  together,  blessing  and  light-giving  amongst  the  sons 
of  men.  Mercy  and  Truth  are  the  Divine — Righteousness 
and  Peace  the  earthly. 

Let  me  dwell  upon  these  two  couples  briefly.  "  Mercy 
and  Truth  are  met  together  "  means  this  :  That  these  two 
qualities  are  found  braided  and  linked  inseparably  in  all 
that  God  does  with  mankind  ;  that  these  two  springs  are 
the  double  fountains  from  which  the  great  stream  of  the 
river  of  the  Water  of  Life,  the  forthcoming  and  the 
manifestation  of  God,  takes  its  rise. 

"  Mercy  and  Truth.  **  What  are  the  meanings  of  the 
two  words  ?  Mercy  is  love  that  stoops,  love  that  departs 
from  the  strict  lines  of  desert  and  retribution.  Mercy  is 
love  that  is  kind  when  justice  might  make  it  otherwise. 
Mercy  is  love  that  condescends  to  that  which  is  far 
beneath.  Thus  the  "  Mercy  "  of  the  Old  Testament 
covers  almost  the  same  ground  as  the  "Grace"  of  the 
New  Testament. 

And  Truth  blends  with  the  mercy.  That  is  to  say — 
truth  in  a  somewhat  narrower  than  its  widest  sense, 
meaning  mainly  God's  fidelity  to  every  obligation  under 
which  He  has  come.  God's  faithfulness  to  promise, 
God's  fidelity  to  His  past,  God's  fidelity,  in  His  actions, 
to  His  own  character,  which  is  meant  by  that  great  word, 
"  He  sware  by  Hhnself'  " 

Thus  the  sentiment  of  mercy,  the  tender  grace  and 
gentleness  of  that  condescending  love,  has  impressed 
upon  it  the  seal  of  permanence  when  we  say  :  Grace  and 
truth,  mercy  and  faithfulness,  are  met  together.  No 
longer  is  love  mere  sentiment,  which  may  be  capricious 
and  may  be  transient.  We  can  reckon  on  it,  we  know 
the  law  of  its  being.  The  love  is  lifted  up  above  the 
suspicion  of  being  arbitrary,  or  of  ever  changing  or 
fluctuating.     We  do  net  know  all  the  limits  of  the  orbits 

G 


18  "THE  BRIDAL  OF  THE  EARTH  AND  SKY.** 

but  we  know  enough  to  calculate  it  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses. God  has  committed  Himself  to  us,  He  has  limited 
Himself  by  His  obligations,  by  His  own  past.  We  have 
a  right  to  turn  to  Him,  and  say  :  "  Be  what  Thou  art,  and 
continue  to  us  what  Thou  hast  been  unto  past  ages." 
And  He  responds  to  the  appeal.  For  Mercy  and  Truth, 
tender,  gracious,  stooping  forgiving  love,  and  inviolable 
faithfulness  that  can  never  be  otherwise,  these  blend  in 
all  His  works  ;  "  that  by  two  immutable  things,  wherein 
it  was  impossible  for  God  to  lie,  we  might  have  a  strong 
consolation.  '* 

Again,  dear  brethren,  let  me  remind  you,  these  two 
are  the  ideal  two,  which,  as  far  as  God's  will  and  wish 
are  concerned,  are  the  only  two  that  would  mark  any  of 
His  dealings  with  men.  When  He  is,  if  I  may  so  say,  left 
free  to  do  as  He  would,  and  is  not  forced  to  His  "  strange 
act"  of  punishment  by  my  sin  and  your^,  these,  and 
these  only,  are  the  characteristics  of  His  dealings. 

Nor  let  us  forget — "  We  beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as 
of  the  Only  Begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and 
truth.'*''  The  Psalmist's  vision  was  fulfilled  in  Jesus 
Christ,  in  whom  these  sweet  twin  characteristics,  that 
are  linked  inseparably  in  all  the  works  of  God,  are 
welded  together  into  one  in  the  living  personality  of  Him 
who  is  all  the  Father's  grace  embodied  ;  and  is  the  Way 
and  the  Truth  and  the  Life. 

Turn  now  to  the  other  side  of  this  first  aspect  of  the 
union  of  God  ana  man.  "  Mercy  and  truth  are  met  to- 
gether, "  these  are  the  Heavenly  twins.  "  Righteousness 
and  peace  have  kissed  each  other  " — ^these  are  the  earthly 
Bisters  who  sprang  into  being  to  meet  them. 

Of  course  I  know  that  these  words  are  very  often 
applied,  by  way  of  illustration,  to  the  great  work  of  Jesus 
Christ  upon  the  Cross,  which  is  supposed  to  have  recon- 
•Ued,  if  not  contradictory,  at  least  divergently  working 


••THE  BRIDAL  OP  THE   EARTH  AND  SKY.'*  19 

•ides  of  the  Divine  character  and  government.  And  we 
all  know  how  beautifully  the  phrase  has  often  been  em- 
ployed by  eloquent  preachers,  and  how  beautifully  it  has 
been  often  illustrated  by  devout  painters. 

But  beautiful  as  the  adaptation  is,  I  think  it  is  an 
adaptation,  and  not  the  real  meaning  of  the  words,  for 
this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  that  righteousness  and  peace 
•re  not  in  the  Old  Testament  regarded  as  opposites,  but 
as  harmonious  and  inseparable.  And  so  I  take  it  that 
here  we  have  distinctly  the  picture  of  what  happens  upon 
earth  when  Mercy  and  Truth  that  come  down  from 
Heaven  are  accepted  and  recognised — then  Righteousness 
and  Peace  kiss  each  other. 

Or,  to  pui  a.vay  the  metaphor,  here  are  two  thoughts, 
first  that  in  men's  experience  and  life  righteousness  and 
peace  cannot  he  rent  apart.  The  only  secret  of  tranquil- 
lity is  to  be  good.  "  First  of  all,  King  of  Righteousness, 
and  after  that  King  of  Salem,  which  is  the  King  of 
Peace."  "  The  effect  of  Righteousness  shall  be  peace,"  as 
Isaiah,  the  brother  in  spirit  of  this  Psalmist,  says  ;  and  on 
the  other  hand,  as  the  same  prophet  says,  "  The  wicked  is 
like  a  troubled  sea  that  cannot  rest,  whose  waters  cast  up 
mire  and  dirt  ;  there  is  no  peace,  saith  my  God,  to  the 
wicked."  But  where  affections  are  pure,  and  the  life  is 
worthy,  where  goodness  is  loved  in  the  heart,  and  followed 
even  imperfectly  in  the  daily  life,  there  the  ocean  is  quiet, 
and  "  birds  of  peace  sit  brooding  on  the  charmed  wave." 
The  one  secret  of  tranquillity  is  first  to  trust  in  the  Lord 
and  then  to  do  good.  Righteousness  and  peac.  kiss  each 
other. 

The  other  thought  here  is  that  Righteousness  and  her 
twin  sister,  Peace,  only  come  in  the  measure  in  which  the 
mercy  and  the  truth  of  God  are  received  into  thankfui 
hearts.  My  brother,  have  you  taken  that  mercy  and  that 
truth  into  ^  our  soul,  and  are  you  trying  to  reach  peaoft 

c2 


JO       ••the  bridal  op  the  earth  and  skt.** 

in  the  only  way  by  which  any  human  being  can  ever 
reach  it — ^through  the  path  of  righteousness,  self-suppres- 
sion, and  consecration  to  Him  ? 

II. — Now,  take  the  next  phase  of  this  union  and  co-oper- 
ation of  earth  and  Heaven,  which  is  given  here  in  the 
11th  verse  : — Truth  shall  spring  out  of  the  earth,  and 
Righteousness  shall  look  down  from  Heaven."  That  is, 
to  put  it  into  other  words — God  responding  to  man's 
t7'uth.  Notice  that  in  this  verse  one  member  from  each 
of  the  two  pairs  that  have  been  spoken  about  in  the 
previous  verse  is  detached  from  its  companion,  and  they 
are  joined  so  as  to  form  for  a  moment  a  new  pair.  Truth 
is  taken  from  the  first  couple  ;  Righteousness  from  the 
second,  and  a  third  couple  is  thus  formed. 

And  notice,  further,  that  each  takes  the  place  that  had 
belonged  to  the  other.  The  Heavenly  Truth  becomes  a 
child  of  earth ;  and  the  earthly  Righteousness  ascends 
"  to  look  down  from  Heaven."  The  process  of  the  previous 
verse  in  effect  is  reversed.  "  Truth  shall  spring  out  of 
the  earth,  Righteousness  shall  look  down  from  Heaven." 
That  is  to  say  :  Man's  truth  shall  begin  to  grow  and 
blossom  in  answer,  as  it  were,  to  God's  Truth  that  came 
down  upon  it.  Which  being  translated  into  other  words 
is  this  :  where  a  man's  heart  has  welcomed  the  mercy  and 
the  truth  of  God  there  shall  spring  up  in  that  heart,  not 
only  the  righteousness  and  peace,  of  which  the  previous 
verse  is  speaking,  but  specifically  a  faithfulness  not  all 
unlike  the  faithfulness  which  it  grasps.  If  we  have  a 
God  immutable  and  unchangeable  to  build  upon,  let  us 
build  upon  Him  immutability  and  unchangeableness.  If 
we  have  a  Rock  on  which  to  build  our  confidence,  let  us 
see  that  our  confidence  that  we  build  upon  it  is  rocklike 
too.  If  we  have  a  God  that  cannot  lie,  let  us  grasp  His 
faithful  Word  with  an  affiance  that  cannot  falter.  If  we 
have  a  truth  in  the  Heavens,  absolute  and  immutable,  od 


"THE  BRIDAL  OP  THE   EARTH   AND  SKY."  21 

which  to  anchor  our  hopes,  let  us  see  to  it  that  our  hopes, 
anchored  thereon,  are  sure  and  steadfast.  What  a  shame 
it  would  be  that  we  should  bring  the  vacillations  and 
fluctuations  of  our  own  insincerities  and  changeablenesa 
to  the  solemn,  fixed  unutterableness  of  that  Divine  Word  1 
We  ought  to  be  faithful,  for  we  build  upon  a  faithful  God. 

And  then  the  other  side  of  this  second  picture.  Right- 
eousness shall  "  look  down  from  Heaven."  Not  in  iis 
judicial  aspect  merely,  but  as  the  perfect  moral  purity 
that  belongs  to  the  Divine  Nature,  which  shall  bend 
down  a  loving  eye  upon  the  men  beneath,  and  mark  the 
springings  of  any  imperfect  good  and  thankfulness  in  our 
hearts  ;  joyous  as  the  husbandman  beholds  the  springing 
of  his  crops  in  the  fields  that  he  has  sown. 

God  delights  when  He  sees  the  first  faint  flush  of  green 
which  marks  the  springing  of  the  good  seed  in  the  else 
barren  hearts  of  men.  No  good,  no  beauty  of  character, 
no  meek  rapture  of  faith,  no  aspiration  Godwards  is  ever 
wasted  and  lost,  for  His  eye  rests  upon  it.  As  Heaven, 
with  its  myriad  stars,  bends  over  the  lowly  earth,  and  in 
the  midnight  when  no  human  eye  beholds,  sees  all,  so 
God  sees  the  hidden  confidence,  the  unseen  "  truth  "  that 
springs  to  meet  His  faithful  Word.  The  flowers  that 
grow  in  the  pastures  of  the  wilderness,  or  away  upon  the 
wild  prairies,  or  that  hide  in  the  clefts  of  the  inaccessible 
mountains,  do  not  "  waste  their  sweetness  on  the  desert 
air  "  for  God  sees  them. 

It  may  be  an  encouragement  and  quickening  to  us  to 
remember  that  wherever  the  tiniest  little  bit  of  truth 
springs  upon  the  earth,  the  loving  eye — not  the  eye  of  a 
great  taskmaster — but  the  eye  of  the  Brother,  Christ, 
which  is  the  eye  of  God,  looks  down.  "  Wherefore  we 
labour,  that  whether  present  or  absent,  we  may  be  well- 
pleasing  unto  Him." 

III. — And  then  there  is  the  third  aspect  of  this  ideal 


22  "THE  BRIDAL  OP  THE  EARTH  A^D  SKY.'' 

relation  between  earth  and  Heaven,  the  converse  of  the 
one  we  have  just  now  been  speaking  of,  set  forth  in  the 
next  verse  :  "Yea,  the  Lord  shall  give  that  which  is  good 
and  our  land  shall  yield  her  increase."  That  is  to  say  : 
man  responding  to  God's  gift.  You  see  that  the  order  of 
things  is  reversed  in  this  verse  from  the  former  one.  It 
recurs  to  the  order  with  which  we  originally  started. 
"  The  Lord  shall  give  that  which  is  good."  In  figure,  that 
refers  to  all  the  skyey  influence  of  dew,  rain,  sunshine, 
passing  breezes,  and  still,  ripening  autumn  days  ;  in  the 
reality  it  refers  to  all  the  motives,  powers,  impulses,  helps, 
furtherances  by  which  He  makes  it  possible  for  us  to 
serve  Him  and  love  Him,  and  bring  forth  fruits  of 
righteousness. 

And  so  the  thought  which  has  already  been  hinted  at 
is  here  more  fully  developed  and  dwelt  upon,  this  great 
truth,  that  earthly  fruitfulness  is  possible  only  by  the 
reception  of  Heavenly  gifts.  As  sure  as  every  leaf  that 
grows  is  mainly  water  that  the  plant  has  got  from  the 
clouds,  and  carbon  that  it  has  got  out  of  the  atmosphere, 
80  surely  will  all  our  good  be  mainly  drawn  from  Heaven 
and  Heaven's  gifts.  As  certainly  as  every  lump  of  coal 
that  you  put  upon  your  fire  contains  in  itself  sunbeams 
that  have  been  locked  up  for  all  these  millenniums  that 
have  passed  since  it  waved  green  in  the  forest,  so  certainly 
does  every  good  deed  embody  in  itself  gifts  from  above. 
And  no  man  is  pure  except  by  impartation  ;  and  every 
good  thing  and  every  perfect  thing  cometh  from  the 
Father  of  Lights. 

So  let  us  learn  the  lesson  of  absolute  dependence  for 
all  purity,  virtue,  and  righteousness  on  His  bestowment, 
and  come  to  Him  and  ask  Him  evermore  to  fill  our 
emptiness  with  His  own  gracious  fulness,  and  to  lead  us 
to  be  what  He  commands  and  would  have  us  to  be. 

And  then  there  is  the  other  lesson  out  of  this  phase  of 


••  THE   BRIDAL  OF  THE   EARTH  AND  SKY."  23 

the  ideal  relation  between  eartli  ind  Heaven,  the  lesson 
of  what  we  ought  to  do  with  the  gift.  "  The  earth  yields 
her  increase,"  by  laying  hold  of  the  good  which  the  Lord 
gives,  and  by  reason  of  that  received  good  quickening  all 
the  germs.  Ah  I  dear  brethren,  wasted  opportunities, 
neglected  moments,  uncultivated  talents,  gifts  that  are 
not  stirred  up  ;  rain  and  dew  and  sunshine,  all  poured 
upon  us  and  no  increase — is  not  that  the  story  of  much 
of  all  our  lives,  and  of  the  whole  of  some  lives  ? 

Are  we  like  Eastern  lands  where  the  trees  have  been 
felled,  and  the  great  irrigation  works  and  tanks  have 
been  allowed  to  fall  into  disrepair,  and  so  when  the 
bountiful  treasure  of  the  rains  comes,  all  that  it  does  is 
to  swell  for  half  a  day  the  discoloured  stream  that  carries 
away  some  more  of  the  arable  land  ;  and  when  the  sun- 
shine comes,  with  its  swift,  warm  powers,  all  that  it  does 
is  to  bleach  the  stones  and  scorch  the  barren  sand  ?  "  The 
earth  which  drinketh  in  the  rain  that  cometh  oft  upon  it, 
and  yieldeth  herbs  meet  for  them  by  whom  it  is  dressed, 
receiveth  the  blessing  of  God."  Is  it  true  about  you  that 
the  earth  yieldeth  her  increase,  as  it  is  certainly  true  that 
"  the  Lord  giveth  that  which  is  good  "  ? 

IV. — And  now  the  last  thing  which  is  here,  the  last 
phase  of  the  fourfold  representation  of  the  ideal  relation 
between  earth  and  Heaven,  is,  "  Righteousness  shall  go 
before  Him  and  shall  set  us  in  the  way  of  His  steps." 
That  is  to  say,  God  teaching  man  to  walk  in  His  footsteps. 
There  is  some  difficulty  about  the  meaning  of  the  last 
clause  of  this  verse,  but  I  think  that  having  regard  to  the 
whole  context  and  to  that  idea  of  the  interpenetration  of 
the  Heavenly  with  the  human  which  we  have  seen 
running  through  it,  the  reading  in  our  English  Bible  gives 
substantially,  though  somewhat  freely,  the  meaning.  The 
clause  might  literally  be  rendered  "  make  His  footsteps 
for  a  way."     It  comes  to  substantially  the  same  thing  as 


8ft  **THB    BKIDAL   OF    THE    EARTH    AND   SKY. 

\b  expressed  in  our  English  Bible,  Righteousness,  God*8 
moral  perfectiiess,  is  set  forth  here  in  a  twofold  phase. 
First  a?  a  henild  going  before  Him  and  preparing  His  piith. 

The  Psalmist  in  these  words  draws  tighter  than  ever 
the  bond  between  God  and  man.  It  is  not  only  that  God 
sends  His  messengers  to  the  world,  nor  only  that  His 
loving  eye  looks  down  upon  it,  nor  only  *'  that  he  give^ 
that  which  is  good  "  ;  but  it  is  that  the  whole  Heaven,  as 
it  were,  lowers  itself  to  touch  earth,  that  God  comes  down 
to  dwell  and  walk  among  men.  The  Psalmist's  mind  is 
filled  with  the  thought  of  a  present  God  who  moves 
amongst  mankind,  and  has  His  "  foot^steps ''  on  earth. 
This  herald  Righteousness  prepares  God's  path,  which  is 
just  to  say  that  all  His  dealings  with  mankind — which,  as 
we  have  seen,  have  mercy  and  faithfulness  for  their 
signattire  and  stamp— are  rooted  and  based  in  perfect 
rectitude. 

The  second  phase  of  the  operation  of  righteousness  is, 
that  that  majestic  herald,  tlie  Divine  ptirity  which  moves 
before  Him,  and  "  prepares  in  the  desert  a  highway  for 
the  Lord, " — that  that  very  same  righteousness  comes  and 
takes  my  feeble  hand,  and  will  lead  my  tottering  foot- 
steps into  God's  path,  and  teach  me  to  walk,  planting  my 
little  foot  where  He  planted  His.  The  highest  of  all 
thoughts  of  the  ideal  relation  between  earth  and  Heaven, 
that  of  likeness  between  God  and  man,  is  trembling  on 
the  Psalmist's  lips.  Men  may  walk  in  God's  ways — not 
only  in  the  ways  that  please  Him,  but  in  the  ways  that 
are  like  Him.  "Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your 
Father  which  is  in  Heaven  is  perfect. " 

And  the  likeness  can  only  be  a  likeness  in  moral  qual- 
ities— a  likeness  in  goodness,  a  likeness  in  purity,  a  like- 
ness in  aversion  from  evil,  for  the  other  attributes  and 
characteristics  are  His  peculiar  properly  ;  and  no  human 
brow  can  wear  the  crown  that  He  wears.     But  though 


••THB   BRIDAL  OP  THE   EARTH   AND   SKY."  25 

His  mercy  can  but,  from  afar  off,  be  copied  by  na,  the 
righteousneBs  that  moves  before  Him,  and  engineera 
God's  path  through  the  wilderness  of  the  world,  will 
come  behind  Him  and  nurselike  lay  hold  of  our  feeble 
arms  and  teach  us  to  go  in  the  way  God  would  have  ua 
to  walk. 

Ah,  brethren  !  That  is  the  crown  and  climax  of  the 
harmony  bet^veen  God  and  man,  that  His  mercy  and  His 
truth.  His  gifts  and  His  grace  have  all  led  us  up  to  this  : 
that  we  take  His  righteousness  as  our  pattern,  and  try  in 
our  poor  lives  to  reproduce  its  wondrous  beauty.  Do  not 
forget  that  a  great  deal  more  than  the  Psalmist  dreamed 
of,  you  Christian  men  and  women  possess,  in  the  Christ 
Who  of  God  is  made  unto  us  righteousness,  in  Whom 
Heaven  and  earth  are  joined  for  ever,  in  Whom  man  and 
God  are  knit  in  strictest  bonds  of  indissoluble  friendship  ; 
and  Who,  having  prepared  a  path  for  God  in  His  mighty 
mission  and  by  His  sacrifice  on  the  Cross,  comes  to  us ; 
and,  as  the  Incarnate  Righteousness,  will  lead  us  in  the 
paths  of  God,  leaving  us  an  example,  that  "we  should 
follow  in  His  steps.  " 


THE  WORK  AND  ARMOUR  OF  THE 
CHILDREN  OF  THE  DAY. 


SERMON  III. 

THB  WORK  Ain)  ABMOUB  OF  THB  OHILDBBN 
OF  THB  DAY. 


"  Let  OS,  who  are  of  the  day,  be  lober,  putting  on  the  breastplate  of  tatth 
lore ;  and  for  a  helmet,  the  hope  of  salTation."    1  Thea.  t.  8. 


This  letter  to  the  Thessalonians  is  the  oldest  book  of  the 
New  Testament.  It  was  probably  written  within  some- 
thing like  twenty  years  of  the  Crucifixion  ;  long,  therefore, 
before  any  of  the  Gospels  were  in  existence.  It  is, 
therefore,  exceedingly  interesting  and  instructive  to 
notice  how  this  whole  context  is  saturated  with  allusions 
to  our  Lord's  teaching,  as  it  is  preserved  in  these  Gospels  ; 
and  how  it  takes  for  granted  that  the  Thessalonian 
Christians  were  familiar  with  the  very  w^ords. 

For  instance  :  "  Yourselves  know  perfectly  that  the  day 
of  the  Lord  so  cometh  as  a  thief  in  the  night."  (Ver.  2.) 
How  did  these  people  in  Thessalonica  know  that  ?  They 
had  been  Christians  for  a  year  or  so  only  ;  they  had  been 
taught  by  Paul  for  a  few  weeks  only,  or  a  month  or  two 
at  the  most.  How  did  they  know  it  ?  Because  they  had 
been  told  what  the  Master  had  said  :  "  If  the  goodman  of 


30  THE  WORK  AND  ARMOUB 

the  house  had  known  at  what  honr  the  thief  would 
come,  he  would  have  watched,  and  would  not  have 
suffered  his  house  to  be  broken  up." 

And  there  are  other  allusions  in  the  context  almost  as 
obvious — "  The  children  of  the  light."  Who  said  that  ? 
Christ,  in  His  words  :  "  The  children  of  this  world  are 
wiser  than  the  children  of  light."  "  They  that  sleep, 
sleep  in  the  night,  and  if  they  be  drunken,  are  drunken 
in  the  night."  Where  does  that  metaphor  come  from  ? 
"  Take  heed  lest  at  any  time  ye  be  over-charged  with 
surfeiting  and  drunkenness,  and  the  cares  of  this  life, 
and  so  that  day  come  upon  you  unawares."  "Watch, 
lest  coming  suddenly  he  find  you  sleeping  I " 

So  you  see  all  the  context  reposes  upon,  and  presupposes 
the  very  words,  which  you  find  in  our  present  existing 
Gospels,  as  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  And  this  is  all 
but  cotemporaneous,  and  quite  independent  evidence  of 
the  existence  in  the  Church,  from  the  beginning,  of  a 
traditional  teaching  respecting  Christ  in  verbal  cor- 
respondence with  the  teaching  which  is  now  preserved 
for  us  in  that  four-fold  record  of  His  life. 

Take  that  remark  for  what  it  is  worth  ;  and  now  turn 
to  the  text  itself  with  which  I  have  to  deal  this  morning. 
The  whole  of  the  context  may  be  said  to  be  a  little 
dissertation  upon  the  moral  and  religious  uses  of  the 
doctrine  of  our  Lord's  second  coming.  In  my  text  these 
are  summed  up  in  one  central  injunction  which  has 
preceding  it  a  motive  that  enforces  it,  and  following  it  a 
method  that  ensures  it.  "  Let  us  be  sober."  That  is  the 
centre  thought ;  and  it  is  buttressed  upon  either  side  by 
a  motive  and  a  means.  *'  Let  us  who  are  of  the  day,"  or 
"since  we  are  of  the  day, — be  sober."  And  let  us  he  it 
by  "  putting  on  the  breastplate,  and  helmet  of  faith,  love, 
and  hope."  These,  then,  are  the  three  points  which  we 
have  to  consider. 


OF  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THB  DAT.  81 

I. — First,  this  central  injunction,  into  which  all  the 
moral  teaching  drawn  from  the  second  coming  of  Christ 
is  gathered — "  Let  us  be  sober."  Now,  I  do  not  suppose 
we  are  altogether  to  omit  any  reference  to  the  literal 
meaning  of  this  word.  The  context  seems  to  shew  that, 
by  its  reference  to  night  as  the  season  for  drunken  orgies. 
Temperance  is  moderation  in  regard  not  only  of  the  evil 
and  swinish  sin  of  drunkenness,  which  is  so  manifestly 
contrary  to  all  Christian  integrity  and  nobility  of  charac- 
ter, but  in  regard  of  the  far  more  subtle  temptation  of 
another  form  of  sensual  indulgence — ^gluttony.  The 
Christian  Church  needed  to  be  warned  of  that,  and  if 
these  people  in  Thessalonica  needed  the  warning  I  am 
quite  sure  that  we  need  it.  There  is  not  a  nation  on 
earth  which  needs  it  more  than  Englishmen.  I  am  no 
ascetic,  I  do  not  want  to  glorify  any  outward  observance, 
but  any  doctor  in  England  will  tell  you  that  the  average 
Englishman  eats  and  drinks  a  great  deal  more  than  is 
good  for  him.  It  is  melancholy  to  think  how  many 
professing  Christians  have  the  edge  and  keenness  of  their 
intellectual  and  spiritual  life  blunted  by  the  luxurious 
and  senseless  table-abundance  in  which  they  habitually 
indulge.  I  am  quite  sure  that  water  from  the  spring  and 
barley-bread  would  be  a  great  deal  better  for  their  souls 
and  for  their  bodies  too,  in  the  case  of  many  people  that 
call  themselves  Christians.  Suffer  a  word  of  exhortation  I 
and  do  not  let  it  be  neglected  because  it  is  brief  and 
general.  Sparta,  after  all,  is  the  best  place  for  a  man  to 
live  in,  next  to  Jerusalem. 

But,  passing  from  that,  let  us  turn  to  the  higher  subject 
with  which  the  Apostle  is  here  evidently  mainly  con- 
cerned. What  is  the  meaning  of  the  exhortation  "  Be 
sober  ?  "  Well,  first  let  me  tell  you  what  I  think  is  not 
the  meaning  of  it.  It  does  not  mean  an  unemotional 
absence  of  fervour  in  your  Christian  character. 


32  THB  WORE  AND  ABMOUB 

There  is  a  kind  of  religions  teachers  who  are  always 
preaching  down  enthusiasm,  and  preaching  up  what  they 
call  a  "  sober  standard  of  feeling  "  in  matters  of  religion. 
By  which,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  they  mean  precisely 
such  a  tepid  condition  as  is  described  in  much  less  polite 
language  ;  when  the  Voice  from  Heaven  says,  "  Because 
thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot  I  will  spue  thee  out  of  My 
mouth."  That  is  the  real  meaning  of  the  "  sobriety  "  that 
some  people  are  always  desiring  yon  to  cultivate.  I 
should  have  thought  that  the  last  piece  of  furniture  which 
any  Christian  Church  in  the  nineteenth  century  needed 
was  a  refrigerator  I  A  poker  and  a  pair  of  bellows  would 
be  very  much  more  needful  for  them.  For,  dear  brethren, 
the  truths  that  you  and  I  profess  to  believe  are  of  such  a 
nature,  so  tremendous  either  in  their  joy  fulness  and 
beauty,  or  in  their  solemnity  and  awfulness,  that  one 
would  think  that  if  they  once  got  into  a  man's  head  and 
heart,  nothing  but  the  most  fervid  and  continuous  glow 
of  a  radiant  enthusiasm  would  correspond  to  their  majesty 
and  overwhelming  importance.  I  venture  to  say  that  the 
only  consistent  Christian  is  the  enthusiastic  Christian  ; 
and  that  the  only  man  that  will  ever  do  anything  in  this 
world  for  God  or  man  worth  doing,  is  the  man  who  is  not 
sober,  according  to  that  cold-blooded  definition  which  1 
have  been  speaking  about,  but  who  is  all  ablaze  with  an 
enkindled  earnestness  that  knows  no  diminution  and  no 
cessation. 

Paul,  the  very  man  that  is  exhorting  here  to  sobriety, 
was  the  very  type  of  an  enthusiast  all  his  life.  So  Festus 
thought  him  mad,  and  even  in  the  Church  at  Corinth 
there  were  some  to  whom  in  his  fervour,  he  seemed  to  be 
"  beside  himself."  (2  Cor.  v.  13.) 

Oh  I  for  more  of  that  insanity  I  Yon  may  make  np 
your  minds  to  this  ;  that  any  men  or  women  that  are  in 
Ihorough  earnest,  either  about  Christianity  or  about  any 


OF  THB  CHILDREN   OF  THE   DAT.  33 

Other  great,  noble,  lofty,  self -forgetting  purpose,  will  have 
to  be  content  to  have  the  old  Pentecostal  charge  flung  at 
them  : — "  These  men  are  full  of  new  wine  I  '*  Well  for  the 
Church,  and  well  for  the  men  who  deserve  the  taunt ;  for 
it  means  that  they  have  learned  something  of  the  emotion 
that  corresponds  to  such  magnificent  and  awful  verities 
as  Christian  faith  converses  with. 

I  did  not  intend  to  say  so  much  about  that ;  I  turn  now 
for  a  moment  to  the  consideration  of  what  this  exhorta- 
tion really  means.  It  means,  as  I  take  it,  mainly  this  : 
the  prime  Christian  duty  of  self-restraint  in  the  use  and 
the  love  of  all  earthly  treasures  and  pleasures. 

I  need  not  do  more  than  remind  you  how,  in  the  very 
make  of  a  man's  soul,  it  is  clear  that  unless  there  be 
exercised  rigid  self-control  he  will  go  all  to  pieces. 
The  make  of  human  nature,  if  I  may  so  say,  shews  that 
it  is  not  meant  for  a  democracy  but  a  monarchy. 

Here  are  within  us  many  passions,  tastes,  desires,  most 
of  them  rooted  in  the  flesh,  which  are  as  blind  as  hunger 
and  thirst  are.  If  a  man  is  hungry,  the  bread  will  satisfy 
him  all  the  same  whether  he  steals  it  or  not  ;  and  it  will 
not  necessarily  be  distasteful  even  if  it  be  poisoned. 
And  there  are  other  blind  impulses  and  appetites  in  our 
nature  which  ask  nothing  except  this  :— "  Give  me  my 
appropriate  gratification,  though  all  the  laws  of  God  and 
man  be  broken  in  order  to  get  it  I  " 

And  so  there  has  to  be  something  like  an  eye  given  to 
these  blind  beasts,  and  something  like  a  directing  hand 
laid  upon  these  instinctive  impulses.  The  true  temple  of 
the  human  spirit  must  be  built  in  stages,  the  broad  base 
laid  in  these  animal  instincts  ;  above  them  and  controlling 
them  the  directing  and  restraining  will ;  above  it  the 
understanding  which  enlightens  it  and  them  ;  and  su- 
preme over  all  the  conscience  with  nothing  between  it 
&nd  Heaven.     Where  that  is  not  the  order  of  the  inner 

D 


34  THE   WORK  AND   ARMOUR 

man,  you  get  wild  work.  You  have  set  "beggars  on 
horseback, "  and  we  all  know  where  they  go  !  The  man 
who  lets  passion  and  inclination  guide  is  like  a  steam- 
boat with  all  the  furnaces  banked  up,  with  the  engines 
going  full  speed,  and  nobody  at  the  wheel.  It  will  drive 
on  to  the  rocks,  or  wherever  the  bow  happens  to  point,  no 
matter  though  death  and  destruction  lie  beyond  the  next 
turn  of  the  screw.  That  is  what  you  will  come  to  unless 
you  live  in  the  habitual  exercise  of  rigid  self-control. 

And  that  self-control  is  to  be  exercised  mainly,  or  at 
least  as  one  very  important  form  of  it,  in  regard  of  our 
use  and  estimate  of  the  pleasures  of  this  present  life. 
Yes  !  it  is  not  only  from  the  study  of  a  man*s  make  that 
the  necessity  for  a  very  rigid  self-government  appears, 
but  the  observation  of  the  conditions  and  circumstances 
in  which  he  is  placed  points  the  same  lesson.  All  round 
about  him  are  hands  reaching  out  to  him  drugged  cups. 
The  world  with  all  its  fading  sweets  comes  tempting  him, 
and  the  old  fable  fulfils  itself — Whoever  takes  that 
Circe's  cup  and  puts  it  to  his  lips  and  quaffs  deep,  turns 
into  a  swine,  and  sits  there  imprisoned  at  the  feet  of  the 
sorcerebs  for  evermore  ! 

There  is  only  one  thing  that  will  deliver  you  from  that 
fate,  my  brother.  "Be  sober"  and  in  regard  of  the 
world  and  all  that  it  offers  to  us — all  joy,  possession, 
gratification — "  set  a  knife  to  thy  throat  if  thou  be  a  man 
given  to  appetite. "  There  is  no  noble  life  possible  on 
any  other  terms — not  to  say  there  is  no  Christian  life 
possible  on  any  other  terms — but  suppression  and  mortifi- 
cation of  the  desires  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  spirit.  You 
cannot  look  upwards  and  downwards  at  the  same  mo- 
ment. Your  heart  is  only  a  tiny  room  after  all,  and  if 
you  cram  it  full  of  the  world,  you  relegate  your  Master 
to  the  stable  outside.  "  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mam- 
mon. "    "  Be  sober, "  says  Paul,  then,  and  cultivate  the 


OP  THE  CHILDREN   OF  THE  DAT.  35 

habit  of  rigid  self-control  in  regard  of  this  present. 
Oh  I  what  a  melancholy,  solemn  thought  it  is  that  hun- 
dreds of  professing  Christians  in  England,  like  vultures 
after  a  full  meal,  have  so  gorged  themselves  with  the 
garbage  of  this  present  life  that  they  cannot  fly,  and  have 
to  be  content  with  moving  along  the  ground,  heavy  and 
languid.  Christian  men  and  women,  are  you  keeping 
yourselves  in  spiritual  health  by  a  very  sparing  use  of  the 
dainties  and  delights  of  earth  ?  Answer  the  question  to 
your  own  souls  and  to  your  Judge. 

II. — And  now  let  me  turn  to  the  other  thoughts  that  lie 
here.  There  is,  secondly,  a  motive  which  backs  up  and 
buttresses  this  exhortation.  "  Let  us  who  are  of  the  day  " 
— K)r  as  the  Revised  Version  has  it  a  little  more  emphati- 
cally and  correctly, "  Let  us,  since  we  are  of  the  day,  be 
sober. "  "  The  day  ; "  what  day  ?  The  temptation  is  to 
answer  the  question  by  saying—"  of  course  the  specific  day 
which  was  spoken  about  in  the  beginning  of  the  section, 
*the  day  of  the  Lord,'  that  coming  judgment  by  the 
coming  Christ."  But  I  think  that  although,  perhaps, 
there  may  be  some  allusion  here  to  that  specific  day,  still, 
if  you  will  look  at  the  verses  which  immediately  precede 
my  text,  you  will  see  that  in  them  the  Apostle  has  passed 
from  the  thought  of  "  the  day  of  the  Lord  "  to  that  of  day 
in  general.  That  is  obvious,  I  think,  from  the  contrast  he 
draws  between  the  "  day  "  and  the  "  night"  the  darkness 
and  the  light.  If  so,  then,  when  he  says  "the  children  of 
the  day"  he  does  not  so  much  mean— though  that  is 
quite  true— that  we  are,  as  it  were,  akin  to  that  Day  of  Judg- 
ment, and  may  therefore  look  forward  to  it  without  fear, 
and  in  quiet  confidence,  lifting  up  our  heads  because  our 
redemption  draws  nigh  ;  but  rather  he  means  that 
Christians  are  the  children  of  that  which  expresses 
knowledge,  and  joy,  and  activity.  Of  these  things  the 
day  is  the  emblem,  in  ©very  language  and  in  every  poetry. 

D  2 


36  THE   WORK   AND    ARMOUB 

The  day  is  the  time  when  men  see  and  hear,  the  symbol 
of  gladness  and  cheer  all  the  world  over. 

And  so,  says  Paul,  you  Christian  men  and  women 
belong  to  a  joyous  realm,  a  realm  of  light  and  knowledge, 
a  realm  of  purity  and  righteousness.  You  are  children 
of  the  light ;  a  glad  condition  which  involves  many  glad 
and  noble  issues.  Children  of  the  light  should  be  brave, 
children  of  the  light  should  not  be  afraid  of  the  light, 
children  of  the  light  should  be  cheerful,  children  of  the 
light  should  be  buoyant,  children  of  the  light  should  be 
transparent,  children  of  the  light  should  be  hopeful, 
children  of  the  light  should  be  pure,  and  children  of  the 
light  should  walk  in  this  darkened  world,  bearing  their 
radiance  with  them ;  and  making  things,  else  unseen, 
visible  to  many  a  dim  eye. 

But  while  these  emblems  of  cheerfulness,  hope,  purity, 
and  illumination  are  gathered  together  in  that  grand 
name — "  Ye  are  childi-en  of  the  day,"  there  is  one  direc- 
tion especially  in  which  the  Apostle  thinks  that  that 
consideration  ought  to  tell,  and  that  is  the  direction  of  its 
self-restraint.  "  Noblesse  oblige  I  " — the  aristocracy  are 
bound  to  do  nothing  low  or  dishonourable.  The  children 
of  the  light  are  not  to  stain  their  hands  with  anything 
foul.  Chambering  and  wantonness,  slumber  and  drunk- 
enness, the  indulgence  in  the  appetites  of  the  flesh, — all 
that  may  be  fitting  for  the  night,  it  is  clean  incongruous 
with  the  day. 

Well,  if  you  want  that  turned  into  pedestrian  prose — 
Vhich  is  no  more  clear  but  a  little  less  emotional — it  is 
just  this  :  You  Christian  men  aud  women  belong — if  yon 
are  Christians — to  another  state  of  things  from  that  which  is 
lying  round  about  you  ;  and  therefore  you  ought  to  live  in 
rigid  abstinence  from  these  things  that  are  round  about  you. 

That  is  plain  enough  surely,  nor  do  I  suppose  that  1 
need  to  dwell  on  that  thought  at  any  length.     We  belong 


OP  THE   CHILDREN   OP  THE   DAT.  37 

to  another  order  of  things,  says  Paul  ;  we  carry  a  day 
with  us  in  the  midst  of  the  night.  What  follows  from 
that?  Do  not  let  us  pursue  the  wandering  lights  and 
treacherous  will-o'-the-wisps  that  lure  men  into  bottomless 
bogs  where  they  are  lost.  If  we  have  light  in  our  dwel- 
lings whilst  Egypt  lies  in  darkness,  let  it  teach  us  to 
eat  our  meat  with  our  loins  girded,  and  our  staves  in 
our  hands,  not  without  bitter  herbs,  and  ready  to  go 
forth  into  the  wilderness.  You  do  not  belong  to  the 
world  in  which  you  live,  if  you  are  Christian  men  and 
women  ;  you  are  only  camped  here.  Your  purposes, 
thoughts,  hopes,  aspirations,  treasures,  desires,  delights, 
go  up  higher.  And  so,  if  you  are  children  of  the  day,  bi 
self-restrained  in  your  dealings  with  the  darkness. 

III.— And,  last  of  all,  my  text  points  out  for  us  a 
method  by  which  this  great  precept  may  be  fulfilled  :— 
"  Putting  on  the  breastplate  of  faith  and  love,  and  for  an 
helmet  the  hope  of  salvation.  " 

That,  of  course,  is  the  first  rough  draft,  occurring  in 
Paul's  earliest  epistle,  of  an  image  which  recurs  at  inter- 
vals and  in  more  or  less  expanded  form  in  other  of  his 
letters,  and  is  so  splendidly  worked  out  in  detail  in  the 
grand  picture  of  the  Christian  armour  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Ephesians. 

I  need  not  do  more  than  just  remind  yon  of  the  dif- 
ference between  that  finished  picture  and  this  out-line 
sketch.  Here  we  have  only  defensive  and  not  offensive 
armour,  here  the  Christian  graces  are  somewhat  differently 
allocated  to  the  different  parta  of  the  armour.  Here 
we  have  only  the  great  triad  of  Christian  graces,  so  fami- 
liar on  our  lips— faith,  hope,  charity.  Here  we  have  faith 
and  love  in  the  closest  possible  juxtaposition,  and  hope 
somewhat  more  apart ;  the  breastplate,  like  some  of  the 
tmcient  hauberks,  made  of  steel  and  gold,  is  framed 
and  forged  onl  of  faith  and  love  blended  together     And 


38  THE  WORK  AND  ARMOUB 

faith  and  love  are  more  closely  identified  in  fact  than 
faith  and  hope,  or  than  love  and  hope.  For  faith  and 
love  have  the  same  object — and  are  all  but  cotemporane- 
ons.  Wherever  a  man  lays  hold  of  Jesus  Christ  by  faith, 
there  cannot  but  spring  up  in  his  heart  love  to  Christ ; 
and  there  is  no  love  without  faith.  So  that  we  may  al- 
most say  that  faith  and  love  are  but  the  two  throws  of  the 
shuttle,  the  one  in  the  one  direction  and  the  other  in  the 
other  ;  whereas  hope  comes  somewhat  later  in  a  somewhat 
remoter  connection  with  faith,  and  has  a  somewhat  dif- 
ferent object  from  these  other  two.  Therefore  it  is  here 
slightly  separated  from  its  sister  graces.  Faith,  love, 
hope, — these  three  form  the  defensive  armour  that  guard 
the  soul ;  and  these  three  make  self-control  possible. 
Like  a  diver  in  his  dress,  who  is  let  down  to  the  bottom 
of  the  wild,  far- weltering  ocean,  a  man  whose  heart  is 
girt  by  faith  and  charity,  and  whose  head  is  covered  with 
the  helmet  of  hope,  may  be  dropped  down  into  the  wild- 
est sea  of  temptation  and  of  worldliness,  and  yet  will 
walk  dry  and  unharmed  through  the  midst  of  its  depths, 
and  breathe  air  that  comes  from  a  world  above  the  rest- 
less surges. 

And  in  like  manner  the  cultivation  of  faith,  charity, 
and  hope  is  the  best  means  for  securing  the  exercise  of 
sober  self-control. 

It  is  an  easy  thing  to  say  to  a  man,  "  Govern  yourself  I " 
It  is  a  very  hard  thing  with  the  powers  that  any  man  has 
at  his  disposal  to  do  it.  As  somebody  said  about  an  army 
joining  the  rebels,  "  It's  a  bad  job  when  the  extinguisher 
catches  fire  I "  And  that  is  exactly  the  condition  of 
things  in  regard  to  our  power  of  self-government.  The 
powers  that  should  control  are  largely  gone  over  to  the 
enemy,  and  become  traitors. 

"  Who  shall  keep  the  very  keepers  ?  "  is  the  old  ques- 
tion, and  here  is  the  answer :— Yon  cannot  execute  the 


OF  THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  DAY  39 

gymnastic  feat  of  "  erecting  yourself  above  yourself  "  any 
more  than  a  man  can  take  himself  by  his  own  coat  collar 
and  lift  himself  up  from  the  ground  with  his  own  arms. 
But  you  can  cultivate  faith,  hope,  and  charity,  and  these 
three,  well  cultivated  and  brought  to  bear  upon  your 
daily  life,  will  do  the  governing  for  you.  Faith  will 
bring  you  into  communication  with  all  the  power  of  God. 
Love  will  lead  you  into  a  region  where  all  the  tempta- 
tions round  you  will  be  touched  as  by  an  Ithuriel  spear, 
and  will  shew  their  own  foulness.  And  Hope  will  turn 
away  your  eyes  from  looking  at  the  tempting  splendour 
around,  and  fix  them  upon  the  glories  that  are  above. 

And  so  the  reins  will  come  into  your  hands  in  an 
altogether  new  manner,  and  you  will  be  able  to  be  king 
over  your  own  nature  in  a  fashion  that  you  did  not  dream 
of  before,  if  only  you  will  trust  in  Christ,  and  love  Him, 
and  fix  your  desires  on  the  things  above. 

Then  you  will  be  able  to  govern  yourself  when  you  let 
Christ  govern  you.  The  glories  that  are  to  be  done  away 
that  gleam  round  you  like  foul,  flaring  tallow-candles, 
will  lose  all  their  fascination  and  brightness,  by  reason  of 
the  glory  that  excelleth,  the  pure  starlike  splendour  of 
the  white  inextinguishable  lights  of  Heaven. 

And  when  by  Faith,  Charity  and  Hope  you  have  drunk 
of  the  new  wine  of  the  Kingdom,  the  drugged  and  opiate 
cup  which  a  sorceress  world  presents,  jewelled  though  it 
be,  will  lose  its  charms,  and  it  will  not  be  hard  to  turn 
from  it  and  dash  it  to  the  ground. 

God  help  you,  brother,  to  be  "  sober,"  for  unless  you 
are  "  you  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of  God  I  ** 


THE    LAST   BEATITUDE   OF   THE   ASCENDED 
CHRIST. 


SERMON  IV, 


THE  LAST  BEATITUDE  OF  THE  ASCENDED  CHRIST. 

"  Blessed  are  they  that  do  His  commandments,  that  they  may  haye  right  to  th« 
free  of  Life,  and  may  enter  in  through  the  gates  into  the  city."    Rev.  xxiL  14. 

The  Revised  Version  reads,  "  Blessed  are  they  that  wash 
their  robes,  that  they  may  have  the  right  to  come  to  the 
Tree  of  Life." 

That  may  seem  a  very  large  change  to  make,  from 
"  keep  his  commandments  "  to  "  wash  their  robes, "  but 
in  the  Greek  it  is  only  a  change  of  three  letters  in  one 
word,  one  in  the  next,  and  two  in  the  third.  And  the 
two  phrases,  written,  look  so  like  each  other  that  a  scribe 
hasty,  or,  for  the  moment,  careless,  might  very  easily 
mistake  the  one  for  the  other.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
whatever  that  the  reading  in  the  Revised  Version  is  the 
coj-rect  one.  Not  only  is  it  sustained  by  a  great  weight 
of  authority,  but  also  it  is  far  more  in  accordance  with 
the  whole  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  than  that  which 
stands  in  our  Authorised  Version. 

"  Blessed  are  they  that  do  His  commandments,  that 
they  might  have  right  to  the  Tree  of  Life,"  carries  us 
back  to  the  old  law,  and  has  no  more  hopeful  a  sound  in 
it  than  the  thunders  of  Sinai.  If  it  were,  indeed, 
amongst  Christ's  last  words  to  us,  it  would  be  a  most  sad 


44  THE   LAST   BEATITUDE 

instance  of  His  "  building  again  the  things  He  had  des- 
troyed. "  It  is  relegating  us  to  the  dreary  old  round  of 
trying  to  earn  Heaven  by  doing  good  deeds  ;  and  I  might 
almost  say  it  is  "making  the  Cross  of  Christ  of  none 
effect.  "  The  fact  that  that  corrupt  reading  came  so  soon 
into  the  Church  and  has  held  its  ground  so  long,  is  to  me 
a  very  singular  proof  of  the  difficulty  which  men  have 
always  had  in  keeping  themselves  up  to  the  level  of  the 
grand  central  Gospel-truth  :  "  Not  by  works  of  righteous- 
ness which  we  have  done,  but  by  His  mercy,  He  saved 
ns." 

"  Blessed  are  they  that  wash  their  robes,  that  they  may 
have  right  to  the  Tree  of  Life,  "  has  the  clear  ring  of  the 
New  Testament  music  about  it,  and  is  in  full  accord  with 
the  whole  type  of  doctrine  that  runs  through  this  book  ; 
and  is  not  unworthy  to  be  almost  the  last  word  that  the 
lips  of  the  Incarnate  Wisdom  spoke  to  men  from  Heaven. 
So  then,  taking  that  point  of  view,  I  wish  to  look  with 
you  at  the  three  things  that  come  plainly  out  of  these 
words  : — First,  that  principle  that  if  men  are  clean  it  is 
because  they  are  cleansed  ;  "  Blessed  are  they  that  wash 
their  robes. "  Secondly,  It  is  the  cleansed  who  have 
unrestrained  access  to  the  source  of  life.  And  lastly,  It 
is  the  cleansed  that  pass  into  the  society  of  the  city. 
Now,  let  me  deal  with  these  three  things  : — 

First,  If  we  are  clean  it  is  because  we  have  been  made 
so.  The  first  beatitude  that  Jesus  Christ  spoke  from 
the  mountain  was,  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit.  '*  The 
last  beatitude  that  He  speaks  from  Heaven  is,  "  Blessed 
are  they  that  wash  their  robes. "  And  the  act  commend- 
ed in  the  last  is  but  the  outcome  of  the  spirit  extolled  in 
the  first.  For  they  who  are  poor  in  spirit  are  such  as 
know  themselves  to  be  sinful  men  ;  and  those  who  know 
themselves  to  be  sinful  men  are  they  who  will  cleanse 
their  robes  in  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 


OF  THE   ASCENDED   CHRIST.  45 

I  need  not  remind  yon,  I  suppose,  how  continually 
this  symbol  of  the  robe  is  used  in  Scripture  as  an  expression 
for  moral  character.  This  Book  of  the  Apocalypse  is 
saturated  through  and  through  with  Jewish  implications 
and  allusions,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever  that 
in  this  metaphor  of  the  cleansing  of  the  robes  there  is  an 
allusion  to  that  vision  that  the  Apocalyptic  seer  of  the 
Old  Covenant,  the  prophet  Zecharias,  had  when  he  saw 
the  High  Priest  standing  before  the  altar  clad  in  foul 
raiment,  and  the  word  came  forth,  "  Take  away  the  filthy 
garments  from  him. "  Nor  need  I  do  more  than  remind 
you  how  the  same  metaphor  is  often  on  the  lips  of  our 
Lord  Himself,  notably  in  the  story  of  the  man  that  had 
not  on  the  wedding  garment,  and  in  the  touching  and 
beautiful  incident  in  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son, 
where  the  exuberance  of  the  father's  love  bids  them  cast 
the  best  robe  round  the  rags  and  the  leanness  of  his  long- 
lost  boy.  Nor  need  I  remind  you  how  Paul  catches  up 
the  metaphor,  aud  is  continually  referring  to  an  investing 
and  a  divesting — the  putting  on  and  the  putting  off  of  the 
new  and  the  old  man.  In  this  same  Book  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse, we  see,  gleaming  all  through  it,  the  white  robes  of 
the  purified  soul  :  "  They  shall  walk  with  Me  in  white, 
for  they  are  worthy. "  "  I  beheld  a  great  multitude, 
whom  no  man  could  number,  who  had  washed  their 
robes  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb. " 

And  so  there  are  gathered  up  into  these  last  words,  all 
these  allusions  and  memories,  thick  and  clustering,  when 
Christ  speaks  from  Heaven  and  says,  "  Blessed  are  they 
that  wash  their  robes." 

Well  then,  I  suppose  we  may  say  roughly,  in  our  more 
modern  phraseology,  that  the  robe  thus  so  frequently 
spoken  of  in  Scripture  answers  substantially  to  what  we 
call  character.     It  is  not  exactly  the  man— and  yet  it  if 


46  THE  LAST  BEATITUDE 

the  man.  It  is  the  self — and  yet  it  is  a  kind  of  projection 
and  making  visible  of  the  self,  the  vesture  which  is  cast 
round  "  the  hidden  man  of  the  heart." 

This  mysterious  robe,  which  answers  nearly  to  what 
we  mean  by  character,  is  made  by  the  wearer. 

That  is  a  solemn  thought.  Every  one  of  ns,  carries 
about  with  him  a  mystical  loom,  and  we  are  always 
weaving — weave,  weave,  weaving — this  robe  which  we 
wear,  every  thought  a  thread  of  the  warp,  every  action  a 
thread  of  the  weft.  We  weave  it,  as  the  spider  does  its 
web,  out  of  its  own  entrails,  if  I  might  so  say.  We 
weave  it,  and  we  dye  it,  and  we  cut  it,  and  we  stitch  it, 
%nd  then  we  put  it  on  and  wear  it,  and  it  sticks  to  us. 
Like  a  snail  that  crawls  about  your  garden  patches,  and 
makes  its  shell  by  a  process  of  secretion  from  out  of  its 
own  substance  so  you  and  I  are  making  that  mysterious, 
solemn  thing  that  we  call  character,  moment  by  moment 
It  is  our  own  self,  modified  by  our  actions.  Character  is 
the  precipitate  from  the  stream  of  conduct  which,  like  the 
Nile  Delta,  gradually  rises  solid  and  firm  above  the  parent 
river  and  confines  its  flow. 

The  next  step  that  I  ask  yon  to  take  is  one  that  I  know 
some  of  you  do  not  like  to  take,  and  it  is  this  :  All  the 
robes  are  foul.  I  do  not  say  all  are  equally  splashed,  I  do 
not  say  all  equally  thickly  spotted  with  the  flesh.  I  do 
not  wish  to  talk  dogmas,  I  wish  to  talk  experience  ;  and  I 
appeal  to  your  own  consciences,  with  this  plain  question, 
that  every  man  and  woman  amongst  us  can  answer  if  they 
like — Is  it  true  or  is  it  not,  that  the  robe  is  all  dashed 
with  mud  caught  on  the  foul  ways,  with  stains  in  some 
of  us  of  rioting  and  banqueting  and  revelry  and  drunken- 
ness ;  sins  of  the  flesh  that  have  left  their  marks  upon 
the  flesh  ;  but  with  all  of  us  grey  and  foul  as  compared 
with  the  whiteness  of  His  robe  who  sits  above  us  there  ? 

Ah.  1  would  that  I  could  bring  to  all  hearts  that  are 


OF  THE   ASCBNDBD  CHRIST.  47 

listening  to  me  now,  whether  the  hearts  of  professing 
Christians  or  no,  that  consciousness  more  deeply  than  we 
have  ever  had  it,  of  how  full  of  impurity  and  corruption 
our  characters  are.  I  do  not  charge  you  with  crimes  ;  I 
do  not  charge  you  with  guilt  in  the  world's  eyes,  but,  if 
we  seriously  ponder  over  our  past,  have  we  not  lived, 
some  of  us  habitually,  all  of  us  far  too  often,  as  if  there 
were  no  God  at  all,  or  as  if  we  had  nothing  to  do  with 
Him  ?  and  is  not  that  godlessness,  practical  Atheism,  the 
fountain  of  all  foulness  from  which  black  brooks  flow 
into  our  lives,  and  stain  our  robes  ? 

The  next  step  is,  the  foul  robe  can  be  cleansed.  My 
text  does  not  go  any  further  in  a  statement  of  the  method, 
but  it  rests  upon  the  great  words  of  this  Book  of  the 
Revelation,  which  I  have  already  quoted  for  another  pur- 
pose, in  which  we  read  "  they  washed  their  robes,  and 
made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb."  And  the 
same  writer,  in  his  Epistle,  has  the  same  paradox,  which 
seems  to  have  been,  to  him,  a  favourite  way  of  putting  the 
central  Gospel-truth  : — "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanses 
from  all  sin."  John  saw  the  paradox,  and  saw  that  the 
paradox  helped  to  illustrate  the  great  truth  that  He  was 
trying  to  proclaim,  that  the  red  blood  whitened  the  black 
robe,  and  that  in  its  full  tide  there  was  a  limpid  river  of 
water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal,  proceeding  out  of  the  Cross 
of  Christ. 

Guilt  can  be  pardoned,  character  can  be  sanctified. 
Guilt  can  be  pardoned  !  Men  say  :  "  No  I  We  live  in  a 
universe  of  inexorable  laws  :  *  What  a  man  soweth  that 
he  must  also  reap.*  If  he  has  done  wrong  he  must  inherit 
the  consequences." 

But  the  question  whether  guilt  can  be  pardoned  or  not 
has  only  to  do  very  remotely  with  consequences.  The 
question  is  not  whether  we  live  in  a  universe  of  inexor- 
able laws,  but  whether  there  is  anything  in  the  universe 


48  THE   LAST   BEATITUDE 

but  the  laws  ;  for  forgiveness  is  a  personal  act  and  has 
only  to  do  secondarily  and  remotely  with  the  consequen- 
ces of  a  man's  doings.  So  that,  if  we  believe  in  a  personal 
God,  and  believe  that  He  has  got  any  kind  of  living  rela- 
tion to  men  at  all,  we  can  believe — blessed  be  His  name  I 
—  in  the  doctrine  of  forgiveness  ;  and  leave  the  inexor- 
able laws  full  scope  to  w^ork,  according  as  His  wisdom 
and  His  mercy  may  provide.  For  the  heart  of  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  pardon  does  not  touch  those  laws, 
but  the  heart  of  it  is  this :  "  0  Lord  I  Thou  wast  angry 
with  me,  but  Thine  anger  is  turned  away,  Thou  hast 
comforted  me  !  "     So  guilt  may  be  pardoned. 

Character  may  be  sanctified  and  elevated.  Why  not, 
if  you  can  bring  a  sufficiently  strong  new  force  to  bear 
upen  it  ?  And  you  can  bring  such  a  force,  in  the  blessed 
thought  of  Christ's  death  for  me,  and  in  the  gift  of  His  love. 
There  is  such  a  force  in  the  thought  that  He  has  given 
Himself  for  our  sin.  There  is  such  a  force  in  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  given  to  us  through  His  death  to  cleanse  us  by 
His  presence  in  our  hearts.  And  so  I  say,  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  power  of  His  sacrifice  and  Cross,  cleanses 
from  all  sin,  both  in  the  sense  of  taking  away  all  my  guilt, 
and  in  the  sense  of  changing  my  character  into  something 
loftier  and  nobler  and  purer. 

Men  and  women  I  Do  you  believe  that  ?  If  you  do 
not,  why  do  you  not  ?  If  you  do,  are  you  trusting  to 
what  you  believe,  and  living  the  life  that  befits  the  con- 
fidence ? 

One  word  more.  The  washing  of  your  robes  has  to  be 
done  by  you.  "  Blessed  are  they  that  wash  their  robes." 
On  one  hand  is  all  the  fulness  of  cleansing,  on  the  other 
is  the  heap  of  dirty  rags  that  will  not  be  cleansed  by 
you  sitting  there  and  looking  at  them.  You  must  bring 
the  two  into  contact.  How  ?  By  the  magic  band  that 
unites  strength  and  weakness,  purity   and    foulness,  the 


OF  THE   ASCENDED   CHRIST.  49 

Saviour  and  the  penitent  ;  the  magic  band  of  simple 
affiance,  and  trust  and  submission  of  myself  to  the  cleans- 
ing power  of  His  death  and  of  His  life. 

Only  remember,  "  Blessed  are  they  that  are  ivashiyigj'* 
as  the  Greek  might  read.  Not  once  and  for  all,  bnt  a 
continuous  process,  a  blessed  process  running  on  all 
through  a  man's  life. 

These  are  the  conditions  as  they  come  from  Christ's 
own  lips,  in  almost  the  last  words  that  human  ears,  either 
in  fact  or  in  vision,  heard  Him  utter.  These  are  the 
conditions  under  which  noble  life,  and  at  last  Heaven  are 
possible  for  men,  namely,  that  their  foul  characters  shall 
be  cleansed,  and  that  continuously,  by  daily  recurrence 
and  recourse  to  the  Fountain  opened  in  His  sacrifice  and 
death. 

Friends,  you  may  know  much  of  the  beauty  and  no- 
bleness of  Christianity,  you  may  know  much  of  the  ten- 
derness and  purity  of  Christ  but  if  you  have  not  appre- 
hended Him  in  this  character,  there  is  an  inner  sanctuary 
yet  to  be  trod,  of  which  your  feet  know  nothing,  and  the 
sweetest  sweetness  of  all  you  have  not  yet  tasted,  for 
it  is  His  forgiving  love  and  cleansing  power  that  most 
deeply  manifest  His  Divine  affection  and  bind  us  to 
Himself. 

II. — The  second  thought  that  I  would  suggest  is  that 
these  cleansed  ones,  and  by  implication  these  only,  have 
unrestrained  access  to  the  source  of  life  :  "  Blessed  are 
they  that  wash  their  robes,  that  they  may  have  right  *  to 
the  Tree  of  Life. ' "  That,  of  course,  carries  us  back  to  the 
old  mysterious  narrative  at  the  beginning  of  the  Book  of 
Genesis. 

Although  it  does  not  bear  very  closely  upon  my  present 
subject,  I  cannot  help  pausing  to  point  out  one  thing,  how 
remarkable  and  how  beautiful  it  is  that  the  last  page  of 
the  Revelation  should  come  bending  round  to  touch  the 

B 


50  THE  LAST   BBATITUDB 

first  page  of  Genesis.  The  history  of  man  began  with 
angels  with  frovrning  faces  and  flaming  swords  barring 
the  way  to  the  Tree  of  Life.  It  ends  here  with  the  guard 
of  Cherubim  withdrawn  ;  or  rather,  perhaps,  sheathing 
their  swords  and  becoming  guides  to  the  no  longer  for- 
bidden fruit,  instead  of  being  its  guards.  That  is  the  Bible's 
grand  symbolical  way  of  saying  that  all  between — the  sin, 
the  misery,  the  death,  is  a  parenthesis.  God's  purpose  is 
not  going  to  be  thwarted,  and  the  end  of  His  majestic 
march  through  human  history  is  to  be  men*s  access  to  the 
Tree  of  Life  from  which,  for  the  dreary  ages, — that  are 
but  as  a  moment  in  the  great  eternities — they  were  barred 
out  by  their  sin. 

However,  that  is  not  the  point  that  I  meant  to  say  a 
word  about.  The  Tree  of  Life  stands  as  the  symbol  here 
of  an  external  source  of  life.  I  take  "  life  "  to  be  used  here 
in  what  I  believe  to  be  its  predominant  New  Testament 
meaning,  not  bare  continuance  in  existence,  but  a  full 
blessed  perfection  and  activity  of  all  the  faculties  and 
possibilities  of  the  man,  which  this  very  Apostle  himself 
identifies  with  the  knowledge  of  God  and  of  Jesus 
Christ.  And  that  life,  says  John,  has  an  external  source 
in  Heaven  as  on  earth. 

There  is  an  old  Christian  legend,  absurd  as  a  legend, 
beautiful  as  a  parable,  that  the  cross  on  which  Christ  was 
crucified  was  made  out  of  the  wood  of  the  Tree  of  Life.  It  is 
true  in  idea,  for  He  and  His  work  will  be  the  source  of 
all  life,  for  earth  and  for  Heaven,  whether  of  body,  soul,  or 
spirit.  They  that  wash  their  robes  have  the  right  of  un- 
restrained access  to  Him  in  Whose  presence,  in  that  loftier 
state,  no  impurity  can  live. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  the  thought  that  is  involved 
here,  of  how,  whilst  on  earth  and  in  the  beginnings  of  the 
Christian  career,  life  is  the  basis  of  righteousness  ;  in  that 
higher  world,  in  a  very  profound  sense,  righteousness  is 
the  condition  of  fuller  life. 


or  TEE  ASCENDED   CHRIST.  51 

The  Tree  of  Life,  according  to  some  of  the  old  Rab- 
biaical  legends,  lifted  its  branches,  by  an  indwelling 
motion,  high  above  impure  hands  that  were  stretched 
to  touch  them,  and  until  our  hands  are  cleansed  through 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  its  richest  fruit  hangs  unreachable, 
golden,  above  our  heads.  Oh  I  brother,  the  fulness  of  the 
life  of  Heaven  is  only  granted  to  them  who,  drawing  near 
Jesus  Christ  by  faith  on  earth,  have  thereby  cleansed 
themselves  from  all  filthiness  of  the  flesh  and  spirit. 

III. — Finally,  those  who  are  cleansed,  and  they  only, 
have  entrance  into  the  society  of  the  city. 

There  again  we  have  a  whole  series  of  Old  and  New 
Testament  metaphors  gathered  together.  In  the  old  world 
the  whole  power  and  splendour  of  great  kingdoms  was 
gathered  in  their  capitals,  Babylon  and  Nineveh  in  the 
past,  Rome  in  the  present.  To  John  the  forces  of  evil 
were  all  concentrated  in  that  city  on  the  Seven  Hills.  To 
him  the  antagonistic  forces  which  were  the  hope  of  the 
world,  were  all  concentrated  in  the  real  ideal  city  which 
he  expected  to  come  down  from  Heaven — the  New  Jeru- 
salem. And  he  and  his  brother  who  wrote  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  whoever  he  w^as — trained  substantially  in  the 
same  school — have  taught  us  the  same  lesson  that  our  pic- 
ture of  the  future  is  not  to  be  of  a  solitary  or  self -regarding 
Heaven,  but  of  "  a  city  which  hath  foundations." 

Genesis  began  with  a  garden,  man's  sin  sent  him  out  of 
the  garden.  God,  out  of  evil,  evolves  good,  and  for  the 
lost  garden  comes  the  better  thing,  the  found  city.  "  Then 
comes  the  statelier  Eden  back  to  man. "  For  surely  it  is 
better  that  men  should  live  in  the  activities  of  the  city 
than  in  the  sweetness  and  indolence  of  the  garden  ;  and 
manifold  and  miserable  as  are  the  sins  and  the  sorrows  of 
great  cities,  the  opprobria  of  our  modern  so-called  civili- 
sation, yet  still  the  aggregation  of  great  masses  of  men  for 
worthy  objects  generates  a  form  of   character,   and   sets 

e2 


52  THE  LAST   BBATITUDB 

loose  energies  and  activities  which  no  other  kind  ol  lift 
could  have  produced. 

And  so  I  believe  a  great  step  in  progress  is  set  forth 
when  we  read  of  the  final  condition  of  mankind  as  being 
their  assembling  in  the  city  of  God.  And  surely  there, 
amidst  the  solemn  troops  and  sweet  societies,the  long-loved, 
long-lost,  will  be  found  again.  I  cannot  believe  that  like 
the  Virgin  and  Joseph,  we  shall  have  to  go  wandering  up 
and  down  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  when  we  get  there, 
looking  for  our  dear  ones.  "  Wist  ye  not  that  I  should  be 
in  the  Father's  house  ?  "  We  shall  know  where  to  find 
them. 

*  We  shall  olasp  them  again, 
And  with  Ood  be  the  rest." 

The  city  is  the  emblem  of  security  and  of  permanence. 
No  more  shall  life  be  as  a  desert  march,  with  changes 
which  only  bring  sorrow,  and  yet  a  dreary  monotony 
amidst  them  all.  We  shall  dwell  amid  abiding  realities, 
ourselves  fixed  in  unchanging,  but  ever  growing  complete- 
ness and  peace.  The  tents  shall  be  done  with,  we  shall 
inhabit  the  solid  mansions  of  the  city  which  hath  foun- 
dations, and  shall  wonderingly  exclaim,  as  our  unac- 
customed eyes  gaze  on  their  indestructible  strength, 
"  What  manner  of  stones,  and  what  buildings  are  here  ! " 
— and  not  one  stone  of  these  shall  ever  be  thrown  down. 

Dear  friends  I  the  sum  of  all  my  poor  words  now  is  the 
earnest  beseeching  of  every  one  of  yon  to  bring  all  your 
foulness  to  Christ,  who  alone  can  make  you  clean. 
"  Though  thou  wash  thee  with  nitre,  and  take  thee  much 
soap,  yet  thine  iniquity  is  marked  before  Me,  saith  the 
Lord.  "  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all 
sin. "  Submit  yourselves,  I  pray  you,  to  its  purifying 
power,  by  humble  faith.  Then  you  will  have  the  true 
possession  of  the  true  life  to-day,  and  will  be  citizens  of 


OF  THE   ASCENDED   CHRISfT.  S3 

the  city  of  God,  even  while  in  this  far-ofp  dependency  of 
that  great  metropolis.  And  when  the  moment  comes  for 
yon  to  leave  this  prison-house,  an  angel  "mighty  and 
beauteous,  though  his  face  be  hid, "  shall  come  to  you, 
as  once  of  old  to  the  sleeping  Apostle.  His  touch  shall 
wake  you,  and  lead  you,  scarce  knowing  where  you  are  or 
what  is  happening,  from  the  sleep  of  life,  past  the  first 
•ind  second  ward,  and  through  the  iron  gate  that  leadeth 
unto  the  city.  Smoothly  it  will  turn  on  its  hinges,  open- 
ing to  you  of  its  own  accord,  and  then  you  will  come  to 
yourself  and  know  of  a  surety  that  the  Lord  hath  sent 
His  angel,  and  that  he  has  led  you  into  the  home  of  your 
heart,  the  city  of  God,  which  they  enter  as  its  fitting  in- 
habitants who  wash  their  robes  in  the  blood  «af  the  Lamb. 


LUTHER— A   STONE   ON  THE   CAIRN, 


SERMON  V 


LUTHER — A   STONE   ON   THB  CAIRN. 


"  For  David,  after  he  had  served  his  own  generation  by  the  will  of  God,  fell  ou 
•leep,  and  was  laid  unto  his  fathers  and  saw  corruption.  But  He,  Whom  God  raise*) 
again,  saw  no  corruption. "  (Acts  xiii.  36,  37). 


I  TAKE  these  words  as  a  motto  rather  than  as  a  text. 
You  will  have  anticipated  the  use  which  I  purpose  to  make 
of  them  in  connection  witn  the  Luther  Commemoration. 
They  set  before  us,  in  clear  sharp  contrast,  the  distinction 
between  the  limited  transient  work  of  the  servants  and  the 
unbounded,  eternal  influence  of  the  Master.  The  former 
are  servants,  and  that  but  for  a  time  ;  they  do  their  work, 
they  are  laid  in  the  grave,  and  as  their  bodies  resolve  into 
their  elements,  so  their  influence,  their  teaching,  the  in- 
stitutions which  they  may  have  founded,  disintegrate  and 
decay.  He  lives.  His  relation  to  the  world  is  not  as 
theirs  ;  He  is  "  not  for  an  age,  but  for  all  time."  Death  is 
not  the  end  of  His  work.  His  Cross  is  the  eternal  founda- 
tion of  the  world's  hope.  His  life  is  the  ultimate,  perfect 
revelation  of  the  Divine  Nature  which  can  never  be  sur- 
passed, or  fathomed,  or  antiquated.  Therefore,  the  last 
thought,  in  all  commemorations  of  departed  teachers  and 
guides,  should  be  of  Him  Who  gave  them  all  the  force 
that  they  had  ;  and  the  final  word  should  be  ;  "  they  were 
not  suffered  to  continue  by  reason  of  death,  this  Man  con- 
tinueth  ever." 


58  LUTHER— A  STONE  ON  THE  CAIRN. 

In  the  same  spirit,  then,  as  the  words  of  my  text,  and 
taking  them  as  giving  me  little  more  than  a  starting-point 
and  a  framework  I  draw  from  them  some  thoughts  appro- 
priate to  the  occasion. 

I. — First,  we  have  to  think  about  the  limited  and 
transient  work  of  this  great  servant  of  God. 

The  miner's  son,  that  was  born  in  that  little  Saxon  village, 
four  hundred  years  ago,  presents  at  first  sight  a  character 
singularly  unlike  the  traditional  type  of  mediaeval  Church 
fathers  and  saints.  Their  ascetic  habits,  and  the  repressive 
system  under  which  they  were  trained,  withdraw  them 
from  our  sympathy  ;  but  this  sturdy  peasant,  with  his 
full-blooded  humanity,  unmistakeably  a  man,  and  a  man 
all  round,  is  a  new  type,  and  looks  strangely  out  of  place 
amongst  doctors  and  mediaeval  saints. 

His  character,  though  not  complex  is  many  -  sided 
and  in  some  respects  contradictory.  The  face  and 
figure  that  look  out  upon  us  from  the  best  portraits  oi 
Luther,  tell  us  a  great  deal  about  the  man.  Strong,  massive, 
not  at  all  elegant ;  he  stands  there,  firm  and  resolute,  on 
his  own  legs,  grasping  a  Bihle  in  a  muscular  hand.  There 
is  plenty  of  animalism — a  source  of  power  as  well  sp  of 
weakness — in  the  thick  neck  ;  an  iron  will  in  the  square 
chin  ;  eloquence  on  the  full,  loose  lips  ;  a  mystic,  dreamy 
tenderness  and  sadness  in  the  steadfast  eyes — altogether  a 
true  king  and  a  leader  of  men  ! 


LUTHER— A  STONB  ON  THB  CAIRN.  59 

He  was  no  mere  brave  revolutionary,  he  was  a  cultured 
scholar,  abreast  of  all  the  learning  of  his  age,  capable  of 
logic-chopping  and  scholastic  disputation  on  occasion,  and 
but  too  often  the  victim  of  his  own  over  subtle  refine- 
ments. He  was  a  poet,  with  a  poet's  dreaminess  and  way- 
wardness, fierce  alternations  of  light  and  shade,  sorrow 
and  joy.  All  living  things  whispered  and  spoke  to  him, 
and  he  walked  in  communion  with  them  all.  Little  chil- 
dren gathered  round  his  feet,  and  he  had  a  big  heart  of 
love  for  all  the  weary  and  the  sorrowful. 

Everybody  knows  how  he  could  write  and  speak.  He 
made  the  German  language,  as  we  may  say,  lifting  it  up 
from  a  dialect  of  boors  to  become  the  rich,  fiexible,  cul- 
tured speech  that  it  is.  And  his  Bible,  his  single-handed 
work,  is  one  of  the  colossal  achievements  of  man ;  like 
Stonehenge  or  the  Pyramids.  "His  words  were  half- 
battles,  "  "  they  were  living  creatures  that  had  hands  and 
feet";  his  speech,  direct,  strong,  homely,  ready  to  borrow 
words  from  the  kitchen  or  the  gutter,  is  unmatched  for 
popular  eloquence  and  impression.  There  was  music  in 
the  man.  His  flute  solaced  his  lonely  hours  in  his  home 
at  Wittemberg ;  and  the  Marseillaise  of  the  Reformation, 
as  that  grand  hymn  of  his  has  been  called,  came,  words 
and  music,  from  his  heart.  There  was  humour  in  him, 
coarse  horseplay  often ;  an  honest,  hearty,  broad  laugh 
frequently,  like  that  of  a  Norse  god  I  There  were  coarse 
tastes  in  him,  tastes  of  the  peasant  folk  from  whom  he 
came,  which  clung  to  him  through  life,  and  kept  him  in 
sympathy  with  the  common  people,  and  intelligible  to 
them.  And  withal,  there  was  a  constitutional  melancholy, 
aggravated  by  his  weary  toils,  perilous  fightings,  and 
fierce  throes,  which  led  him  down  often  into  the  deep 
mire  where  there  was  no  standing  ;  and  which  sighs 
through  all  his  life.  The  penitential  psalms  and  Paul's 
wail :  "  0  I  wretched  man  that  I  am, "  perhaps  never  woke 


60  LUTHER— A   STONE   ON  THE  OAIBN. 

more  plaintive  echo  in  any  human  heart  than  they  did  in 

Martin  Luther's. 

Faults  he  had,  gross  and  plain  as  the  heroic  mould  in 
which  he  was  cast.  He  was  vehement  and  fierce  often  ; 
he  was  coarse  and  violent  often.  He  saw  what  he  did  see 
so  clearly,  that  he  was  slow  to  believe  that  there  was  any- 
thing that  he  did  not  see.  He  was  oblivious  of  counter- 
balancing  considerations,  and  given  to  exaggerated,  incau- 
tious, unguarded  statements  of  precious  truths.  He  too 
often  aspired  to  be  a  driver  rather  than  a  leader  of  men  : 
and  his  strength  of  will  became  obstinacy  and  tyranny. 
It  was  too  often  true  that  he  had  dethroned  the  Pope  ol 
Rome  to  set  up  a  pope  at  Wittemberg,  And  foul  person- 
alities came  from  his  lips,  according  to  the  bad  controver- 
sial fashion  of  his  day,  which  permitted  a  license  to 
scholars  that  we  now  forbid  to  fishwives. 

All  that  has  to  be  admitted  ;  and  when  it  is  all  admitted, 
what  then  ?  This  is  a  fastidious  generation  ;  Erasmus  is 
its  heroic  type  a  great  deal  more  than  Luther — I  mean 
amongst  the  cultivated  classes  of  our  day, — and  that  very 
largely  because  in  Erasmus  there  is  no  quick  sensibility 
to  religious  emotion  as  there  is  in  Luther,  and  no  incon- 
venient fervour.  The  faults  are  there— coarse,  plain, 
palpable— and  perhaps  more  than  enough  has  been  made 
of  them.  Let  us  remember — as  to  violence — ^that  he  was 
following  the  fashion  of  the  day  ;  that  he  was  fighting 
for  his  life  ;  that  when  a  man  is  at  death  grips  with  a 
tiger  he  may  be  pardoned  if  he  strikes  without  considering 
whether  he  is  going  to  spoil  the  skin  or  not ;  and  that,  on 
the  whole  you  cannot  throttle  snakes  in  a  graceful  attitude. 
Men  fought  then  with  bludgeons  ;  they  fight  now  with 
dainty  polished  daggers,  dipped  in  cold  colourless  poison 
of  sarcasm.  Perhaps  there  was  less  malice  in  the  rougher 
old  way  than  in  the  new. 

The  faults  are  there,  and  nobody  that  was  not  a  fool 


LUTHER— A  STONB   ON   THE   CAIRN.  61 

would  think  of  painting  that  homely  Saxon  peasant-monk's 
face  without  the  warts  and  the  wrinkles.  But  it  is  quite 
as  unhistorical,  and  a  great  deal  more  wicked,  to  paint 
nothing  but  the  warts  and  wrinkles  ;  to  rake  all  the  faults 
together  and  make  the  most  of  them  ;  and  present  them 
in  answer  to  the  question  :  "  What  sort  of  a  man  was 
Mai-tin  Luther  ?  " 

As  to  the  work  that  he  did,  like  the  work  of  all  of  us, 
it  had  its  limitations,  and  it  will  have  its  end.  The  im- 
pulse that  he  communicated,  like  all  impulses  that  are 
given  from  men,  will  wear  out  its  force.  New^  questions 
will  arise,  of  which  the  dead  leaders  never  dreamed,  and 
in  which  they  can  give  no  counsel.  The  perspective  of 
theological  thought  will  alter,  the  centre  of  interest  will 
change,  a  new  dialect  will  begin  to  be  spoken.  So  it 
comes  to  pass  that  all  religious  teachers  and  thinkers  are 
left  behind,  and  that  their  words  aie  preserved  and  read 
rather  for  their  antiquarian  and  historical  interest,  than 
because  of  any  impulse  or  direction  for  the  present  which 
may  linger  in  them  ;  and  if  they  founded  institutions, 
these  too,  in  their  time,  will  crumble  and  disappear. 

But  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  truths  which  Luther 
rescued  from  the  dust  of  centuries,  and  impressed  upon 
the  conscience  of  Teutonic  Europe,  are  getting  antiquated. 
I  only  mean  that  his  connection  with  them  and  his  way 
of  putting  them,  had  its  limitations  and  will  have  its  end  ; 
— "  This  man,  having  served  his  own  generation  by  the 
wiir  of  God,  was  gathered  to  his  fathers,  and  saw 
corruption." 

What  were  the  truths,  what  was  his  contribution  to  the 
illumination  of  Europe,  and  to  the  Church  .^  Three  great 
principles, — which  perhaps  closer  analysis  might  reduce 
to  one  ;  but  which  for  popular  use,  on  such  an  occasion  as 
the  present,  had  better  be  kept  apart, — will  state  his  service 
io  the  world. 


62  LUTHER— A  STONB  ON  THE  CAIRN. 

There  were  three  men  in  the  past  who,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  reach  out  their  hands  to  one  another  across  the 
centuries — Panl,  St.  Augustine,  and  Martin  Luther.  Three 
men  very  like  each  other,  all  three  of  them  joining  the 
same  subtle  speculative  power  with  the  same  capacity  of 
religious  fervour,  and  of  flaming  up  at  the  contemplation 
of  Divine  truth.  All  of  them  gifted  with  the  same  ex- 
uberant, and  to  fastidious  eyes,  incorrect  eloquence.  All 
three  trained  in  a  school  of  religious  thought  of  which 
each  respectively  was  destined  to  be  the  antagonist  and  all 
but  the  destroyer. 

The  young  Pharisee,  on  the  road  to  Damascus,  blinded, 
bewildered,  with  all  that  vision  flaming  upon  him,  sees  in 
its  light  his  past,  that  he  thought  had  been  so  pure,  and 
holy,  and  God-serving,  and  amazedly  discovers  that  it  had 
been  all  a  sin  and  a  crime,  and  a  persecution  of  the  Divine 
One.  Beaten  from  every  refuge,  and  lying  there,  he  cries  : 
"  What  wouldst  Thou  have  me  to  do.  Lord  ?  " 

The  young  Manichean  and  profligate  in  the  fourth 
century,  and  the  young  monk  in  his  convent  in  the  15th, 
passed  through  a  similiar  experience  ; — different  in  form, 
identical  in  substance — with  that  of  Paul,  the  persecutor. 
And  so  Paul's  gospel,  which  was  the  description  and  ex- 
planation, the  rationale  of  his  own  experience,  became 
their  gospel ;  and  when  Paul  said  : — "  Not  by  works  of 
righteousness  which  our  own  hands  have  done,  but  by  His 
mercy  He  saved  us  "  (Titus  iii.  5),  the  great  voice  from 
the  North  African  shore,  in  the  midst  of  the  agonies  of 
barbarian  invasions  and  a  falling  Rome,  said  "Amen." 
*'  Man  lives  by  faith,"  and  the  voice  from  the  Wittemberg 
convent,  a  thousand  years  after,  amidst  the  unspeakable 
corruption  of  that  phosphorescent  and  decaying  renais- 
sance, answered  across  the  centuries,  "  It  is  true  I " 
"  Herein  is  the  righteousness  of  God  revealed  from  faith 
to  faith."     Luther's  word  to  the  world  was  Augustine's 


liUTHBR— A  STONE  ON  THE  CAIRN.  63 

word  to  the  world  ;  and  Lnther  and  Augustine  were  the 
echoes  of  Saul  of  Tarsus — and  Paul  learned  his  theology 
on  the  Damascus  road,  when  the  voice  bade  him  go  and 
proclaim  "  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  inheritance  among  them 
which  are  sanctified  by  faith  that  is  in  Me."  (Acts  xxvi.  18.) 
That  is  Luther's  first  claim  on  our  gratitude,  that  he  took 
this  truth  from  the  shelves  where  it  had  reposed,  dust- 
covered,  through  centuries,  that  he  lifted  this  truth  from 
the  bier  where  it  had  lain,  smothered  with  sacerdotal  gar- 
lands, and  called  with  a  loud  voice,  "I  say  unto  thee, 
arise  1 "  and  that  now  the  commonplace  of  Christianity  is 
this — All  men  are  sinful  men,  justice  condemns  us  all. 
Our  only  hope  is  God's  infinite  mercy.  That  mercy  comes 
to  us  all  in  Jesus  Christ  that  died  for  us,  and  he  that  gets 
that  into  his  heart  by  simple  faith,  he  is  forgiven,  pure, 
and  he  is  an  heir  of  Heaven. 

There  are  other  aspects  of  Christian  truth  which  Luther 
failed  to  apprehend.  The  Gospel  is,  of  course,  not  only  a 
way  of  reconciliation  and  forgiveness.  He  pushed  his 
teaching  of  the  uselessness  of  good  works  as  a  means  of 
salvation  too  far.  He  said  rash  and  exaggerated  things  in 
his  vehement  way  about  the  "  justifying  power  "  of  faith 
alone.  Doubtless  his  language  was  often  exaggerated,  and 
his  thoughts  one-sided,  in  regard  to  subjects  that  need  very 
delicate  handling  and  careful  definition.  But  after  all  that 
is  admitted,  it  remains  true  that  his  strong  arm  tossed 
aside  the  barriers  and  rubbish  that  had  been  piled  across 
the  way  by  which  prodigals  could  go  home  to  their  Father, 
and  made  plain  once  more  the  endless  mercy  of  God,  and 
the  power  of  humble  faith.  He  was  right  when  he  de- 
clared that  whatever  heights  and  depths  there  may  be  in 
God's  great  revelation,  and  however  needful  it  is  for  a 
complete  apprehension  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  that 
these  should  find  their  place  in  the  creed  of  Christendom, 
Btill  the  firmness  with  which  that  initial  truth  of  man's 


64  LUTHER— A  STO^E   ON  THE   CAIRJS. 

sini'ulness  and  his  forgiveness  and  acceptance  through 
simple  faith  in  Christ  is  held,  and  the  clear  earnestness 
\\  ith  which  it  is  proclaimed,  are  the  test  of  a  standing  or  a 
falling  Church. 

And  then,  closely  connected  with  this  central  principle, 
and  yet  susceptible  of  being  stated  separately,  are  the 
other  two  ;  of  neither  of  which  do  I  think  it  necessary  to 
say  more  than  a  word.  Side  by  side  with  that  great  dis- 
covery— for  it  was  a  discovery — by  the  monk  in  his  con- 
vent, of  Justification  by  faith,  there  follows  the  other 
principle  of  the  entire  sweeping  away  of  all  priesthood, 
and  the  direct  access  to  God  of  every  individual  Christian 
soul.  There  are  no  more  external  rites  to  be  done  by  a 
designated  and  separate  class.  There  is  One  sacrificing 
Priest,  and  one  only,  and  that  is  Jesus  Christ,  Who  has 
sacrificed  Himself  for  us  all,  and  there  are  no  other  priests, 
except  in  the  sense  in  which  every  Christian  man  is  a 
priest  and  minister  of  the  most  high  God.  And  no  man 
comes  between  me  and  my  Father ;  and  no  man  has  a 
right  to  do  anything  for  me  which  brings  me  any  grace, 
except  in  so  far  as  mine  own  heart  opens  for  the  reception, 
and  mine  own  faith  lays  hold  of  the  grace  given. 

Luther  did  not  carry  that  principle  so  far  as  some  of  us 
modern  Nonconformists  carry  it.  He  left  illogical  frag- 
ments of  sacrarneiitarian  and  sacerdotal  theories  in  his 
creed  and  in  his  Church.  But,  for  all  that,  we  owe  mainly 
to  him  the  clear  utterance  of  that  thought,  the  warm 
breath  of  which  has  thawed  the  ice  chains  which  held 
Europe  in  barren  bondage.  Notwithstanding  the  present 
1  ortentous  revival  of  sacerdotalism,  and  the  strange  turn- 
ing again  of  portions  of  society  to  these  beggarly  elements 
of  the  past,  I  believe  that  the  figments  of  a  sacrificing 
priesthood  and  sacramental  efficacy  will  never  again  per- 
manently darken  the  sky  in  this  land,  the  home  of  the 
men  who  speak  the  tongue  of  Milton,  and  owe  much  of 


LUTHER — A   STONE   ON    THE   CAIRN.  65 

their  religious  and  political  fieedom  to  the  Reformation  of 
Luther. 

And  the  third  point,  which  is  closely  connected  with 
these  other  two,  is  this,  the  declaration  that  every  illumin- 
ated Christian  soul  has  a  right  and  is  bound  to  study  God's 
Word  without  the  Church  at  its  elbow  to  teach  what  to 
think  about  it.  It  was  Luther's  great  achievement  that, 
whatever  else  he  did,  he  put  the  Bible  into  the  hands  oi 
the  common  people.  In  that  department  and  region,  his 
work,  perhaps,  bears  more  distinctly  the  traces  of  limita- 
tion and  imperfection  than  anywhere  else,  for  he  knew 
nothing — how  could  he  ? — of  the  diliicult  questions  of  this 
day  in  regard  to  the  composition  and  authority  of  Scripture, 
nor  had  he  thought  out  his  own  system  or  done  full  justice 
to  his  own  principle. 

He  could  be  as  inquisitorial  and  as  dogmatic  as  any 
Dominican  of  them  all.  He  believed  in  force  ;  he  was 
as  ready  as  all  his  fellows  were  to  invoke  the  aid  of  the 
temporal  power.  The  idea  of  the  Church,  as  helped  and 
sustained,  which  means  fettered,  and  weakened,  and  para- 
lysed, by  the  civic  government,  bewitched  him  as  it  did 
his  fellows.  We  needed  to  wait  for  George  Fox,  and 
Roger  Williams,  and  more  modern  names  still  before  we 
understood  fully  what  was  involved  in  the  rejection  of 
priesthood,  and  the  claim  that  God's  Word  should  speak 
directly  to  each  Chiistian  soul.  But  for  all  that,  we 
largely  owe  to  Luther  the  creed  that  looks  in  simple  faith 
to  Chiist :  a  Chm-ch  without  a  priest,  in  which  every  man 
is  a  priest  of  the  Most  High,  the  only  true  democracy  that 
the  world  will  ever  see  ;  and  a  Church  in  which  the  open 
Bible  and  the  indw  elling  spirit  are  the  guides  of  every 
humble  soul  within  its  pale.  These  are  his  claims  on  our 
gratitude. 

Luther's  work  had  its  limitations  and  its  imperfections, 
as  I  have  been  saying  to  you.    It  will  become  less  and  less 

F 


66  LUTHER— A  STONE  ON  THE  CAIRN, 

conspicuous  as  the  ages  go  on.  It  cannot  be  otherwise. 
That  is  the  law  of  the  world.  As  a  whole  green  forest  of 
the  carboniferous  era  is  represented  now  in  the  rocks  by 
a  thin  seam  of  coal,  no  thicker  than  a  sheet  of  paper,  so 
the  stormy  lives  and  the  large  works  of  the  men  that  have 
gone  before,  are  compressed  into  a  mere  film  and  line  in 
the  great  cliff  that  slowly  rises  above  the  sea  of  time  and 
is  called  the  history  of  the  world. 

II. — Be  it  so  I  be  it  so  I  Let  us  turn  to  the  other  thought 
of  our  text,  the  perpetual  work  of  the  abiding  Lord. 
"  He  Whom  God  raised  up  saw  no  corruption."  It  is  a  fact 
that  there  are  thousands  of  men  and  women  in  the  world 
to-day  that  have  a  feeling  about  that  eighteen-centuries- 
dead  Galilean  carpenter's  son  that  they  have  about  nobody 
else.  All  the  great  names  of  antiquity  are  but  ghosts  and 
shadows,  and  all  the  names  in  the  Church  and  in  the 
world,  of  men  whom  we  have  not  seen,  are  dim  and  in- 
effectual to  us.  They  may  evoke  our  admiration,  our 
reverence,  and  our  wonder,  but  none  of  them  can  touch 
the  heart.  And  here  is  this  unique,  anomalous  fact  that 
men  and  women  by  the  thousand  love  Jesus  Christ,  the 
dead  One,  the  unseen  One,  far  away  back  there  in  the 
ages,  and  feel  that  there  is  no  mist  of  oblivion  between 
them  and  Him. 

This  is  because  He  does  for  you  and  me  what  none 
of  these  other  men  can  do.  Luther  talked  about  a  cross, 
Christ  died  on  it. — "  Was  Paul  crucified  for  you  ?  "  There 
is  the  secret  of  His  undying  hold  upon  the  world.  The 
further  secret  lies  in  this,  that  He  is  not  a  past  force  but  a 
present  one.  He  is  no  exhausted  power  but  a  power 
mighty  to  day  ;  working  in  us,  around  us,  on  us,  and  for 
us, — a  living  Christ:  "This  Man  Whom  God  raised  np 
from  the  dead  saw  no  corruption."  The  others  move 
away  from  us  like  figures  in  a  fog,  dim  as  they  pass  into 
the  mists,  having  a  blurred  half  spectral  outline  for  a 
moment,  and  then  gone. 


LUTHER — ^A  BTONB  ON  THE  OAIBN.  67 

That  death  has  a  present  and  a  perpetual  power.  He 
has  offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins  for  ever ;  and  no  time 
can  diminish  the  efficacy  of  His  cross,  nor  onr  need  of  it, 
nor  the  full  tide  of  blessings  which  flow  from  it  to  the 
belieying  sonl.  Therefore  do  men  cling  to  Him  to-day  as 
if  it  was  but  yesterday  that  He  had  died  for  them.  When 
all  other  names  carved  on  the  world's  records  have  become 
unreadable,  like  forgotten  inscriptions  on  decaying  grave- 
stones, His  shall  endure  for  ever,  deep  graven  on  fleshly 
tables  of  the  heart.  His  Revelation  of  God  is  the  highest 
truth.  Till  the  end  of  time  men  will  turn  to  His  life  for 
their  clearest  knowledge  and  happiest  certainty  of  their 
Father  in  heaven.  There  is  nothing  limited  or  local  in 
His  character  or  works.  In  His  meek  beauty  and  gentle 
perfectness,  He  stands  so  high  above  us  all  that,  to-day, 
the  inspiration  of  His  example  and  the  lessons  of  His 
conduct  touch  us  as  much  as  if  He  had  lived  in  this  gener- 
ation, and  will  always  shine  before  men  as  their  best  and 
most  blessed  law  of  conduct.  Christ  will  not  be  antiqua- 
ted till  He  is  outgrown,  and  it  will  be  some  time  before 
that  happens. 

But  Christ's  work  is  not  the  only  abiding  influence  of 
His  earthly  life  and  death.  He  is  not  a  past  force,  but  a 
present  one.  He  is  putting  forth  fresh  powers  to-day, 
working  in  and  for  and  by  all  who  love  Him.  We  believe 
in  a  living  Christ. 

Therefore  the  final  thought  in  all  onr  grateful  comme- 
moration of  dead  helpers  and  guides  should  be,  of  the 
undying  Lord.  He  sent  whatsoever  power  was  in  them. 
He  is  with  His  Church  to-day,  still  giving  to  men  the  gifts 
needful  for  their  times.  Aaron  may  die  on  Hor,  and 
Moses  be  laid  in  his  unknown  grave  on  Pisgah,  but  the 
Angel  of  the  Covenant,  who  is  the  true  leader,  abides  in 
the  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire,  Israel's  guide  in  the  march, 
and  covering  shelter  in  repose.     That  is  our  consolation  in 

P  2 


68  LUTHER — A  STONE  ON  THE  GAIRN. 

our  personal  losses  when  our  dear  ones  are  "  not  suffered  to 
continue  by  reason  of  death."  He  who  gave  them  all  their 
sweetness  is  with  us  still,  and  has  all  the  sweetness  which 
He  lent  them  for  a  time.  So,  if  we  have  Christ  with  us, 
we  cannot  be  desolate. 

Looking  on  all  these  men,  who  in  their  turn  have  helped 
forward  His  cause  a  little  way,  we  should  let  their 
departure  teach  us  His  presence,  their  limitations  His  all- 
eufficiency,  their  death  His  life. 

Luther  was  once  found,  at  a  moment  of  peril  and  fear, 
when  he  had  need  to  grasp  unseen  strength,  sitting  in  an 
abstracted  mood,  traceing  on  the  table  with  his  finger  the 
words  "  Vivit  1  vivit "  I — "  He  lives  I  He  lives  I  "  It  is  our 
hope  for  ourselves,  and  for  His  truth,  and  for  mankind. 
Men  come  and  go  ;  leaders,  teachers,  thinkers,  speak  and 
work  for  a  season  and  then  fall  silent  and  impotent.  He 
abides.  They  die,  but  He  lives.  They  are  lights  kindled, 
and  therefore  sooner  or  later  quenched,  but  He  is  the  true 
light  from  which  they  draw  all  their  brightness,  and  He 
shines  for  evermore.  Other  men  are  left  behind  and  as 
the  world  glides  forw^ard,  are  wrapped  in  ever  thickening 
folds  of  oblivion,  through  which  they  shine  feebly  for  a 
little  w^hile,  like  lamps  in  a  fog,  and  then  are  muffled  in 
invisibility.  We  honour  other  names,  and  the  coming 
generations  will  forget  them,  but  "  His  name  shall  endure 
for  ever.  His  name  shall  continue  as  long  as  the  Sun,  and 
men  shall  be  blessed  in  Him ;  all  nations  shall  call  Him 
blessed." 


^\'1IA r  THE  VvOELD  CALLED  THE  CHUKCH,  AND 
WHAT  THE  CHUKCH  CALLS  ITSELF. 


SERMON  VL 


WHAT  THE  WORLD  CALLED  THE  CHURCH,  AND 
WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CALLS  ITSELF. 

**The  disdples  were  called  Chrutiaus  first  in  Antiooh. "    (Acts  zi.  te.) 

Nations  and  parties,  both  political  and  religious,  very 
often  call  themselves  by  one  name,  and  are  known  to  the 
outside  world  by  another.  These  outside  names  are  gener- 
ally given  in  contempt ;  and  yet  they  sometimes  manage 
to  hit  the  very  centre  of  the  characteristics  of  the  people 
on  whom  they  are  bestowed  ;  and  so  by  degrees  get  to  be 
adopted  by  them,  and  worn  as  an  honour. 

So  it  has  been  with  the  name  "  Christian."  It  was  given 
at  the  first,  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Syrian  city  of 
Antioch,  to  a  new  sort  of  people  that  had  sprung  up 
amongst  them,  and  whom  they  could  not  quite  make  out. 
They  would  not  fit  into  any  of  their  categories,  and  so 
they  had  to  invent  a  new  name  for  them.  It  is  never  used 
in  the  New  Testament  by  Christians  about  themselves. 
It  occurs  here  in  this  text  ;  it  occurs  in  Agrippa*s  half- 
contemptuous  exclamation  :  "  You  seem  to  think  it  is  a 
very  small  matter  to  make  me — me,  a  king  ! — a  Christian  ; 
one  of  those  despised  people  I  "  And  it  occurs  once  more, 
where  the  Apostle  Peter  is  specifying  the  charges  brought 
against  them.     "  If  any  man  suffer  as  a  Christian,  let  him 


72  WHAT  THE   WORLD  CALLED  THE  CHURCH, 

not  be  ashamed  ;  but  let  him  glorify  God  on  this  behalf.' 
(1  Peter  iv.  16.)  That  sounds  like  the  beginning  of  the 
process  which  has  gone  on  ever  since,  by  which  the  nick- 
name, flung  by  the  sarcastic  men  of  Antioch,  has  been 
turned  into  the  designation  by  which,  all  over  the  world, 
the  followers  of  Jesus  Christ  have  been  proud  to  call 
themselves. 

Now  in  this  verse  there  are  the  outside  name  by  which 
the  world  calls  the  followers  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  one  of 
the  many  interior  names  by  which  the  Church  called  itself. 
I  have  thought  it  might  be  profitable  this  morning  for  us 
to  put  all  the  New  Testament  names  for  Christ's  followers 
together,  and  think  about  them. 

I. — So,  to  begin  with,  we  deal  with  this  name  given  by 
the  world  to  the  Church,  which  the  Church  has  adopted. 
Observe  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  given.  A 
handful  of  large-hearted,  brave  men,  anonymous  fugitives 
belonging  to  the  little  Church  in  Jerusalem,  had  come 
down  to  Antioch  ;  and  there,  without  premeditation,  with- 
out authority,  almost  without  consciousness — certainly 
without  knowing  what  a  big  thing  they  w^ere  doing — they 
took,  all  at  once,  as  if  it  were  the  most  natural  thing  in  the 
world,  a  great  step  by  preaching  the  Gospel  to  pure  heathen 
Greeks.  And  so  began  the  process  by  which  a  small 
Jewish  sect  was  transformed  into  a  world-wide  church. 
The  success  of  their  work  in  Antioch,  amongst  the  pure 
heathen  population,  has  for  its  crowning  attestation  this, 
that  it  compelled  the  curiosity-hunting,  pleasure-loving, 
sarcastic  Antiocheans  to  find  out  a  new  name  for  this  new 
thing  ;  to  write  out  a  new  label  for  the  new  bottles  into 
which  the  new  wine  was  being  put.  Clearly  the  name 
shews  that  the  Church  was  beginning  to  attract  the  atten- 
tion of  outsiders. 

Clearly  it  shews,  too,  that  there  was  a  novel  element  in 
the  Church.     The  earlier  disciples  had  been  all  Jews,  and 


AND   WHAT  THE   CHURCH   CALLS  ITSBLP.  73 

could  be  lumped  together  along  with  their  countrymen,  and 
come  under  the  same  category.  But  here  is  something  that 
could  not  be  called  either  Jew  or  Greek,  because  it  em- 
braces both.  The  new  name  is  the  first  witness  to  the 
cosmopolitan  character  of  the  primitive  Church.  Then 
clearly,  too,  the  name  indicates  that  in  a  certain  dim,  con- 
fused way,  even  these  superficial  observers  had  got  hold 
of  the  right  notion  of  what  it  was  that  did  bind  these  peo- 
ple together.  They  called  them  "  Christians  " — Christ's 
men,  Christ's  followers.  But  it  was  only  a  very  dim  refrac- 
tion of  the  truth  that  had  got  to  them  ;  they  had  no  notion 
that "  Christ "  was  not  a  proper  name,  but  the  designation  of 
an  office  ;  and  they  had  no  notion  that  there  was  anything 
peculiar  or  strange  in  the  bond  which  united  its  adherents 
to  Christ.  Hence  they  called  His  followers  "  Christians  " 
just  as  they  would  have  called  Herod's  followers  "  Hero- 
dians,"  in  the  political  world,  or  Aristotle's  followers 
"  Aristotelians  "  in  the  philosophical  world.  Still,  in  their 
groping  way,  they  had  put  their  finger  on  the  fact  that  the 
one  thing  that  held  this  heterogeneous  mass  together,  the 
one  bond  that  bound  up  Jew  and  Gentile,  barbarian, 
Scythian,  bond  and  free  into  one  vital  unity,  was  a 
personal  relation  to  a  living  person.  And  so  they  said — 
not  understanding  the  whole  significance  of  it,  but  having 
got  hold  of  the  right  end  of  the  clue — they  said,  "  They 
are  Christians  I  "  "  Christ's  people,"  "  the  followers  of  this 
Christ." 

And  their  very  blunder  was  a  felicity.  If  they  had 
called  them  "Jesuits"  that  would  have  meant  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  mere  man.  They  did  not  know  how  much 
deeper  they  had  gone  when  they  said,  not  followers  of 
Jesufl,  but  "  followers  of  Christ ; "  for  it  is  not  Jesus  the 
Man,  bmt  Jesus  Christ,  the  Man  with  His  office,  that 
makes  the  centre  and  the  bond  of  the  Christian  Church. 

These,  then,  are  the  facts,  and  the  fair  inferences  from 


74  WHAT  THE  WORLD  CALLED  THE  CHURCH, 

them.  A  plain  lesson  here  lies  on  the  surface.  The 
Church — ^that  is  to  say,  the  men  and  women  that  make 
its  members — should  draw  to  itself  the  notice  of  the  out- 
side world.  I  do  not  mean  by  advertising,  and  ostenta- 
tion, and  sounding  trumpets,  and  singularities,  and  affec- 
tations. None  of  all  these  are  needed.  If  you  are  live 
Christians  it  will  be  plain  enough  to  outsiders.  It  is  a 
poor  comment  on  your  consistency,  if,  being  Christ's  fol- 
lowers, you  can  go  through  life  unrecognised  even  by 
"  them  that  are  without.  "  What  shall  we  say  of  leaven 
which  does  not  leaven,  or  of  light  which  does  not  shine, 
or  of  salt  which  does  not  repel  corruption  ?  It  is  a  poor 
affair  if,  being  professed  followers  of  Jesus  Christ,  you 
do  not  impress  the  world  with  the  thought  that  "  here  is  a 
man  who  does  not  come  under  any  of  our  categories,  and 
who  needs  a  new  entry  to  describe  Mm. "  The  world 
ought  to  have  the  same  impression  about  you  which 
Haman  had  about  the  Jews — "  Their  laws  are  diverse 
from  all  people." 

Christian  professors  !  Are  the  world's  names  for  them- 
selves enough  to  describe  you  by,  or  do  you  need  another 
name  to  be  coined  for  you  in  order  to  express  the  mani- 
fest characteristics  that  you  display  ?  The  Church  that 
does  not  provoke  the  attention — I  use  the  word  in  its  ety- 
mological, not  its  offensive  sense — ^the  Church  that  does 
not  call  upon  itself  the  attention  and  interest  of  outsiders 
is  not  the  Church  as  Jesus  Christ  meant  it  to  be,  and  it  is 
not  a  Church  that  is  worth  keeping  alive  ;  and  the  sooner 
it  has  decent  burial  the  better  for  itself  and  the  world  too  I 

There  is  another  thing  here,  viz  : — This  name  suggests 
that  the  clear  impression  made  by  our  conduct  and  charac- 
ter, as  well  as  by  our  words,  should  be  that  we  belong  to 
Jesus  Christ.  The  eye  of  an  outside  observer  may  be  un- 
able to  penetrate  the  secret  of  the  deep  sweet  tie  uniting 
QB  to  Jesus,  but  there  should  be  no  possibility  of  the  most 


AND  WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CALLS   ITSELF.  75 

snperficial  and  hasty  glance  overlooking  the  fact  that  we 
are  His.  He  should  manifestly  be  the  centre  and  the 
guide,  the  impulse  and  the  pattern,  the  strength  and  the 
reward  of  our  whole  lives.  We  are  Christians.  That 
should  be  plain  for  all  folks  to  see,  whether  we  speak  or 
be  silent.  Brethren,  is  it  so  with  you  ?  Does  your  life 
need  no  commentary  of  your  words  in  order  that  men 
should  know  what  is  the  hidden  spring  that  moves  all  its 
wheels  ;  what  is  the  inward  spirit  that  co-ordinates  all  its 
motions  into  harmony  and  beauty  ?  Is  it  true  that  like 
"  the  ointment  of  the  right  hand  which  bewray eth  itself,  " 
your  allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  overmastering 
and  supreme  authority  which  He  exercises  upon  you,  and 
upon  your  life,  "  cannot  be  hid "  ?  Do  you  think  that, 
without  your  words,  if  you,  living  the  way  you  do,  were 
put  down  into  the  middle  of  Pekin,  as  these  handful  of 
people  were  put  down  into  the  middle  of  the  heathen  city 
of  Antioch,  the  wits  of  the  Chinese  metropolis  would  have 
to  invent  a  name  for  you,  as  the  clever  men  of  Antioch  did 
for  these  people  ;  and  do  you  think  that  if  they  had  to  in- 
vent a  name,  the  name  that  would  naturally  come  to  their 
lips,  looking  at  you,  would  be  "  Christians  "  ?  "  Christ's 
men. "     If  you  do  not,  there  is  something  wrong. 

The  last  thing  that  I  say  about  this  first  part  of  my  text 
is  this.  It  is  a  very  sad  thing,  but  it  is  a  thing  that  is 
alwayi  occurring,  that  the  world's  inadequate  notions  of 
what  makes  a  follower  of  Jesus  Christ,  get  accepted  by 
the  Church.  Why  was  it  that  the  name  "  Christian  "  ran 
all  over  Christendom  in  the  course  of  a  century  and  a 
half  ?  I  believe  very  largely  because  it  was  a  conveniently 
vague  name ;  because  it  did  not  describe  the  deepest 
and  sacredest  of  the  bonds  that  unite  us  to  Jesus  Christ. 
Many  a  man  is  quite  willing  to  say,  "I  am  a  Christian, " 
that  would  hesitate  a  long  time  before  he  said,  "I  am  a 
believer  *'  ;  "  I   am  a  disciple.  "      The   vagueness  of  the 


76  WHAT  THE  WORLD  CALLED  THE  CHURCH, 

name,  the  fact  that  it  erred  by  defect  in  not  touching  the 
central,  deepest  relation  between  man  and  Jesus  Christ, 
made  it  very  appropriate  to  the  declining  spirituality  and 
increasing  formalism  of  the  Christian  Church  in  the  post- 
Apostolic  age.  It  is  a  sad  thing  when  the  Church  drops 
i  ts  standard  down  to  the  world's  standard  of  what  it  ought 
to  be,  and  swallows  the  world's  name  for  itself,  and  its 
converts. 

II. — I  turn  now  to  set  side  by  side  with  this  vague, 
general,  outside  name  the  more  specific  and  interior 
names — if  I  may  so  call  them — by  w^hich  Christ's  follow- 
ers at  first  knew  themselves.  The  world  said,  "  You  are 
Christ's  men  ;  "  and  the  names  that  I  am  going  to  gather 
for  you,  and  say  a  word  about  now,  might  be  taken  as 
being  the  Church's  explanation  of  what  the  world  was 
fumbling  at  when  it  so  called  them.  There  are  four  of 
them  ;  of  course,  I  can  only  just  touch  on  them. 

The  first  is  in  this  verse — "  disciples.''^  The  others  are 
believers,  saints,  hrethren.  These  four  are  the  Church's 
own  christening  of  itself  ;  its  explanation  and  expansion, 
its  deepening  and  heightening  of  the  vague  name  given 
by  the  world. 

As  to  the  first,  disciples,  any  concordance  will  shew  that 
the  name  was  employed  almost  exclusively  during  the 
time  of  Christ's  life  upon  earth.  It  is  the  only  name  for 
Christ's  followers  in  the  Gospels  ;  it  occurs  also,  mingled 
with  others,  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  ;  and  it  never 
occurs  any  more. 

The  name  "  disciple,  "  then,  carries  us  back  to  the  his- 
torical beginning  of  the  whole  matter,  when  Jesus  was 
looked  upon  as  a  Rabbi  having  followers  called  disciples  ; 
just  as  were  John  the  Baptist  and  his  followers,  Gamaliel 
and  his  school,  and  many  a  one  besides.  It  sets  forth 
Christ  as  being  the  Teacher,  and  His  followers  as  being 
His  adherents,  His  scholars,  who  learned  at  His  feet. 


AND  WHAT  THE   CHURCH   CALLS  ITSELF.  77 

Now  that  is  always  trne.  We  are  Christ's  scholars 
qnite  as  much  as  the  men  who  heard  and  saw  with  their 
eyes  and  handled  with  their  hands  of  the  Word  of  Life. 
Not  by  words  only,  but  by  gracious  deeds  and  fair  spot- 
less life,  He  taught  them  and  us  and  all  men  to  the  end  of 
time,  our  highest  knowledge  of  God  of  Whom  He  is  the 
final  revelation,  our  best  knowledge  of  what  men  should 
and  shall  be  by  His  perfect  life  in  which  is  contained  all 
morality,  our  only  knowledge  of  that  future  in  that  He 
has  died,  and  is  risen  and  lives  to  help  and  still  to  teach. 
He  teaches  us  still  by  the  record  of  His  life,  and  by  the 
living  influence  of  that  Spirit  whom  He  sends  forth  to 
guide  us  into  all  truth.  He  is  the  Teacher,  the  only 
Teacher,  the  Teacher  for  all  men,  the  Teacher  of  all  truth, 
the  Teacher  for  evermore.  He  speaks  from  Heaven.  Let 
us  give  heed  to  His  voice.  But  that  Name  is  not  enough 
to  tell  all  which  He  is  to  us,  or  we  to  Him,  and  so  after 
He  had  passed  from  earth,  it  unconsciously  and  gradually 
dropped  out  of  the  lips  of  the  disciples,  as  they  felt  a 
deepened  bond  uniting  them  to  Him  who  was  not  only 
the  Teacher  of  the  Truth,  which  was  Himself,  but  was 
their  sacrifice  and  Advocate  with  the  Father.  And  for  all 
who  hold  the,  as  I  believe,  essentially  imperfect  concep- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ  as  being  mainly  a  Teacher,  either  by 
word  or  by  pattern  ;  whether  it  be  put  into  the  old  form 
or  into  the  modern  form  of  regarding  Him  as  the  Ideal 
and  Perfect  Man,  it  seems  to  me  a  fact  well  worthy  of 
consideration  that  the  name  of  Disciple  and  the  thing  ex- 
pressed by  it,  were  speedily  felt  by  the  Christian  Church 
to  be  inadequate  as  a  representation  of  the  bond  that  knit 
them  to  Him.  He  is  our  Teacher,  we  His  scholars.  He 
is  more  than  that,  and  a  more  sacred  bond  unites  us  to 
Him.  As  our  Master  we  owe  Him  absolute  submission. 
When  He  speaks,  we  have  to  accept  His  dictum.  What 
He  says  is  truth,  pure  and  entire.     His  utterance  is  the 


78  WHAT  THE  WORLD  CALLED  THE  CHURCH, 

last  word  upon  any  subject  that  He  touches,  it  is  the 
ultimate  appeal,  and  the  Judge  that  ends  the  strife.  We 
owe  Him  submission,  an  open  eye  for  all  new  truth,  con- 
stant docility,  as  conscious  of  our  own  imperfections,  and 
a  confident  expectation  that  He  will  bless  us  continuously 
with  high  and  as  yet  unknown  truths  that  come  from  His 
inexhaustible  stores  of  wisdom  and  knowledge. 

2.  Teacher  and  scholars  move  in  a  region  which,  though 
it  be  important,  is  not  the  central  one.  And  the  word 
that  was  needed  next  to  express  what  the  early  Church  felt 
Christ  was  to  them,  and  they  to  Him,  lifts  us  into  a  higher 
atmosphere  altogether, — Believers,  they  who  are  exercis- 
ing not  merely  intellectual  submission  to  the  dicta  of 
the  Teacher,  but  who  are  exercising  living  trust  in  the 
person  of  the  Redeemer.  The  belief  which  is  faith  is 
altogether  a  higher  thing  than  its  first  stage,  which  is  the 
belief  of  the  understanding.  There  is  in  it  the  moral 
element  of  trust.  We  believe  a  truth,  we  trust  a  Person  ; 
and  the  trust  which  we  are  to  exercise  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  which  knits  us  to  Him,  is  the  trust  in  Him,  not  in 
any  character  that  we  may  choose  to  ascribe  to  Him,  but 
in  the  character  in  which  He  is  revealed  in  the  New 
Testament — Redeemer,  Saviour,  Manifest  God  ;  and  there- 
fore, the  Infinite  Friend  and  Helper  of  our  souls. 

That  trust,  my  brethren,  is  the  one  thing  that  binds 
men  to  God,  and  the  one  thing  that  makes  us  Christ's 
men.  Apart  from  it,  we  may  be  very  near  Him,  but  we 
are  not  joined  to  Him.  By  it,  and  by  it  alone,  the  union 
is  completed,  and  His  power  and  His  grace  flow  into  our 
spirits.  Are  you,  not  merely  a  "  Christian, "  in  the  world's 
notion,  being  bound  in  some  vague  way  to  Jesus  Christ, 
but  are  you  a  Christian  in  the  sense  of  trusting  your  soul's 
salvation  to  Him  ? 

3.  Then,  still  further,  there  is  another  name — saints.  It 
has  suffered  perhaps  more  at  the  hands  both  of  the  world 


AND  WHAT  THE  CHURCH  CALLS  ITSELF.  79 

and  of  the  Church  than  any  other.  It  has  been  taken  by 
the  latter  and  restricted  to  the  dead,  and  further  restricted 
to  those  who  excel,  according  to  the  fantastic,  ascetic  stan- 
dard of  mediaeval  Christianity.  It  has  suffered  from  the 
world  in  that  it  has  been  used  with  a  certain  bitter  empha- 
sis of  resentment  at  the  claim  of  superior  purity  supposed 
to  be  implied  in  it,  and  so  has  come  to  mean  on  the 
world's  lips  a  pretender  to  be  better  than  other  people, 
whose  actions  contradict  his  claim.  But  the  name  belongs 
to  all  Christ's  followers.  It  makes  no  claim  to  special 
purity,  for  the  central  idea  of  the  word  "saint"  is  not 
purity.  Holiness,  which  is  the  English  for  the  Latinised 
"  sanctity, "  holiness  which  is  attributed  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  God  first,  to  men  only  secondarily,  does  not  pri- 
marily mean  purity ^  but  separation,  God  is  holy,  inas- 
much as  by  that  whole  majestic  character  of  His,  He  is 
lifted  above  all  bounds  of  creatural  limitations,  as  well  as 
above  man's  sin.  A  sacrifice,  the  Sabbath,  a  city,  a  priest's 
garment,  a  mitre — all  these  things  are  "  holy, "  not  when 
they  are  pure^  but  when  they  are  devoted  to  Him.  And 
men  are  holy,  not  because  they  are  clean,  but  because  by 
free  self -surrender  they  have  consecrated  themselves  to 
Him. 

Holiness  is  consecration,  that  is  to  say,  holiness  is  giving 
myself  up  to  Him  to  do  what  He  will  with.  "  I  am  holy  " 
is  not  the  declaration  of  the  fact  "  I  am  pure,"  but  the 
declaration  of  the  fact  "  I  am  thine,  0  Lord. "  So  the 
New  Testament  idea  of  saint  has  in  it  these  elements — 
consecration,  consecration  resting  on  faith  in  Christ,  and 
consecration  leading  to  separation  from  the  world  and  its 
Bin.  And  that  glad  yielding  of  oneself  to  God,  as  wooed 
by  His  mercies,  and  thereby  di'awn  away  from  commun- 
ion with  our  evil  surroundings  and  from  submission  to 
our  evil  selves,  must  be  a  part  of  the  experience  of  every 
true  Christian.      All  His  people  are  saints,  not  as  being 


80  WHAT  THE   WORLD  CALLED  THE  CHURCH, 

pure,  but  as  being  given  up  to  Him,  in  union  with  Whom 
alone  will  the  cleansing  powers  flow  into  their  lives  and 
clothe  them  with  "  the  righteousness  of  saints. "  Have 
you  thus  consecrated  yourself  to  God  ? 

4.  The  last  name  is  brethren — a  name  which  has  been 
much  maltreated  both  by  the  insincerity  of  the  Church, 
and  by  the  sarcasm  of  the  world.  *'  Brethren  I  "  an  unreal 
appellation  which  has  meant  nothing  and  been  meant 
to  mean  nothing,  so  that  the  world  has  said  that  our 
"  brethren  "  signified  a  good  deal  less  than  their  "  brothers." 
"  'Tis  trile,  'tis  pity, ;  pity  'tis,  'tis  true." 

But  what  I  want  you  to  notice  is  that  the  main  thing 
about  that  name  "brethren"  is  not  the  relation  of  the 
brethren  to  one  another,  but  their  common  relation  to 
their  Father. 

When  we  call  om-selves  as  Christian  people,  "  brethren," 
we  mean  first,  this  :  that  we  are  the  possessors  of  a  super- 
natural life,  which  has  come  from  one  Father,  and  which 
has  set  us  in  altogether  new  relations  to  one  another,  and 
to  the  world  round  about  us.  Do  you  believe  that  ?  If 
you  have  got  any  of  that  new  life  which  comes  through 
faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  then  you  are  the  brethren  of  all  those 
that  possess  the  same. 

As  society  gets  more  complicated,  as  Christian  people 
get  unlike  each  other  in  education,  in  social  position,  in 
occupation,  in  their  general  outlook  into  the  world,  it  gets 
more  and  more  difficult  to  feel  what  is  nevertheless  true  : 
that  any  two  Christian  people,  however  unlike  each  other, 
are  nearer  each  other  in  the  very  roots  of  their  nature, 
than  a  Christian  and  a  non-Christian,  however  like  each 
other.  It  is  difficult  to  feel  that,  and  it  is  getting  more 
and  more  difficult,  but  for  all  that  it  is  a  fact. 

And  now  I  wish  to  ask  you,  Christian  men  and  women 
that  are  listening  to  me  now,  whether  you  feel  more  at 
home  with  people  who  love  Jesus  Christ — as  you  say  you 


AND  WHAT   THE   CHURCH   CALLS   ITSELF.  81 

do— or  whether  yon  like  better  to  be  with  people  who  do 
not. 

There  are  some  of  yon  that  choose  your  intimate  associ- 
ates, whom  yon  ask  to  your  homes  and  introduce  to  your 
children  as  desirable  companions,  with  no  reference  at  all  to 
their  religious  chsiracter.  The  duties  of  your  position,  of 
course,  oblige  each  of  you  to  be  much  among  people  who 
do  not  share  your  faith,  and  it  is  cowardly  and  wrong  to 
shrink  from  the  necessity.  But  for  Christian  people  to 
make  choice  of  heart  friends,  or  close  intimates  among 
those  who  have  no  sympathy  with  their  professed  belief 
about,  and  love  to  Jesus  Christ,  does  not  say  much  for  the 
depth  and  reality  of  their  religion.  A  man  is  known  by 
the  company  he  keeps,  and  if  your  friends  are  picked  out 
for  other  reasons,  and  their  religion  is  no  jjart  of  their  at- 
traction, it  is  not  an  unfair  conclusion  that  there  are  other 
things  for  which  you  care  more  than  you  do  for  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ  and  love  to  Him.  If  you  deeply  feel  the  bond 
that  knits  you  to  Christ,  and  really  live  near  to  Him,  you 
will  be  near  your  brethren.  You  will  feel  that  "  blood  is 
thicker  than  water,"  and  however  like  you  may  be  to  irre- 
ligious people  in  many  things,  you  will  feel  that  the  deepest 
bond  of  all  knits  you  to  the  poorest,  the  most  ignorant,  the 
most  unlike  you  in  social  position  ; — ay  !  and  the  most 
unlike  you  in  theological  opinion,  that  love  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  sincerity. 

Now  that  is  the  sum  of  the  whole  matter.  And  my  last 
word  to  you  is  this  :  Do  not  you  be  contented  with  the 
world's  vague  notions  of  what  makes  Christ's  man.  I  do 
not  ask  you  if  you  are  Christians  ;  plenty  of  you  would 
say  :  "  Oh,  yes  !  of  course  !  Is  not  this  a  Christian  country  ? 
Was  not  I  christened  when  I  was  a  child  ?  Are  we  not  all 
members  of  the  Church  of  England  by  virtue  of  our 
birth  ?    Yes  I  of  course  I  am  !  " 

I  do  not  ask  yon  that ;  /  do  not  ask  yon  anjrthing  ;  bnt 


82  WHAT  THB  WORLD  CALLED  THE  CHURCH. 

I  pray  you  to  ask  yourselves  these  four  questions — "  Am  1 
Christ's  scholar  ?  "  "  Am  I  believing  on  Him  ?  "  "  Am  I 
consecrated  to  Him  ?  "  Am  I  the  possessor  of  a  new  life  ?  " 
And  never  give  yourselves  rest  until  you  can  say,  humbly 
and  yet  confidently,  "  Yes  I  Thank  God,  I  am  I  •• 


FAITH   CONQUERING  THE  WORLD. 


SERMON  VII. 


FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD. 
"Tkii  Is  the  victory  that  oreroometh  the  world,  eren  our  faith.  *    1  John  t.  C 

No  New  Testament  writer  makes  such  frequent  use  of 
the  metaphors  of  combat  and  victory  as  this  gentle  Apostle 
John.  None  of  them  seem  to  have  conceived  so  habitually 
of  the  Christian  life  as  being  a  conflict,  and  in  none  of 
their  writings  does  the  clear  note  of  victory  in  the  use  of 
that  word  "  overcometh  "  ring  out  so  constantly  as  it  does  in 
those  of  the  very  Apostle  of  Love.  Equally  characteristic  of 
John's  writings  is  the  prominence  which  he  gives  to  the 
still  contemplation  of,  and  abiding  in,  Christ.  These  two 
conceptions  of  the  Christian  life  appear  to  be  discordant, 
but  are  really  harmonious. 

There  is  no  doubt  where  John  learned  the  phrase.  Once 
he  had  heard  it  at  a  time  and  in  a  place  which  stamped  it 
on  his  memory  for  ever.  "  Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  over- 
come the  world, "  said  Christ,  an  hour  before  Gethsemane. 
Long  years  since  then  had  taught  John  something  of  its 
meaning,  and  had  made  him  to  understand  how  the 
Master's  victory  might  belong  to  the  servants.      Hence  in 


86  FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD. 

this  letter  he  has  much  to  say  about  "overcoming  the 
wicked  one, "  and  the  like  ;  and  in  the  Apocalypse  we 
never  get  far  away  from  hearing  the  shout  of  victory, 
whether  we  consider  the  sevenfold  promises  of  the  letters 
that  stand  at  the  beginning  of  the  visions,  or  whether  we 
listen  to  such  sayings  as  this  : — "  They  overcame  by  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb, "  or  the  last  promise  of  all : — "  He  that 
overcometh  shall  inherit  all  things. " 

Thus  bound  together  by  that  link,  as  well  as  by  a  great 
many  more,  are  all  the  writings  which  the  tradition  of  the 
Church  has  attributed  to  this  great  Apostle. 

But  to  come  to  the  words  of  my  text.  They  appear  in 
a  very  remarkable  context  here.  If  you  read  a  verse  or 
two  before,  you  will  get  the  full  singularity  of  their  in- 
troduction. "  This  is  the  love  of  God, "  says  he,  "  that  we 
keep  His  commandments  :  and  His  commandments  are 
not  grievous.  "  They  are  very  heavy  and  hard  in  them- 
selves ;  it  is  very  difficult  to  do  right,  and  to  walk  in  the 
ways  of  God,  and  to  please  Him.  His  commandments  are 
grievous,  per  se ;  a  heavy  burden,  a  difficult  thing  to  do — 
but  let  us  read  on  : — "  They  are  not  grievous,  for  whatso- 
ever is  born  of  God  " — keepeth  the  commandments  ?  No  1 
"Whatsoever  is  born  of  God  overcometh  the  world. ''^ 
That,  thinks  John,  is  the  same  thing  as  keeping  God's 
commandments.  "  This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the 
world,  even  our  faith. "  Notice,  then,  first,  What  is  the 
true  notion  of  conquering  the  world  ?  secondly,  How  that 
victory  may  be  ours  ? 

I. — What  is  the  true  notion  of  conquering  the  world  ? 
Let  us  go  back  to  what  I  have  already  said.  Where  did 
John  learn  the  expression  ?  Who  was  it  that  first  used  it  ? 
It  comes  from  that  never-to-be-forgotten  night  in  that 
upper  room  ;  where,  with  His  life's  purpose  apparently 
crushed  into  nothing,  and  the  world  just  ready  to  exercise 
its  last  newer  over  Him  by   killing   Him,  Jesus   Christ 


PAITH   CONQUERING  THE  WORLD.  87 

breaks  out  into  such  a  strange  strain  of  triumph,  and  in 
the  midst  of  apparent  defeat  lifts  up  that  clarion  note  of 
victory  : — "  I  have  overcome  the  world  I " 

He  had  not  made  much  of  it,  according  to  usual  stan- 
dards, had  He  ?  His  life  had  been  the  life  of  a  poor  man. 
Neither  fame  nor  influence,  nor  what  people  call  success, 
had  He  won,  judged  from  the  ordinary  points  of  view, 
and  at  three-and-thirty  is  about  to  be  murdered  ;  and  yet 
He  says,  "  I  have  beaten  it  all,  and  here  I  stand  a  con- 
queror I  "  That  threw  a  flood  of  light  for  John,  and  for  all 
that  had  listened  to  Christ,  on  the  whole  conditions  of 
human  life,  and  on  what  victory  and  defeat,  success  and 
failure  in  this  world  mean.  Not  so  do  men  usually  esti- 
mate what  conquering  the  world  is.  Not  so  do  you  and  I 
estimate  it  when  we  are  left  to  our  own  folly  and  our  own 
weakness.  Our  notion  of  being  victorious  in  life  is  when 
each  man,  according  to  his  own  ideal  of  what  is  best, 
manages  to  wring  that  ideal  out  of  a  reluctant  world.  Or, 
to  put  it  into  plainer  words,  a  man  desires,  say,  conspicu- 
ous notoriety  and  fame.  He  accounts  that  he  has  con- 
quered when  he  scrambles  over  all  his  fellows,  and  writes 
his  name,  as  boys  do,  upon  a  wall,  higher  than  anybody 
else's  name,  with  a  bit  of  chalk,  in  writing  that  the  next 
winter's  sto  i  will  obliterate !  That  is  victory  I  The 
Manchester  ideal  says,  "  Found  a  big  business  and  make 
it  pay. "  That  is  to  conquer  I  Other  notions,  higher  and 
nobler  than  that,  all  partake  of  the  same  fallacy  that  if  a 
man  can  get  the  w^orld,  the  sum  of  external  things,  into 
his  grip,  and  squeeze  it  as  one  does  a  grape,  and  get  the 
last  drop  of  sweetness  out  of  it  into  his  thirsty  lips,  he  is 
a  conqueror. 

Well  I  and  you  may  get  all  that,  whatever  it  is,  that 
seems  to  you  best,  sweetest,  most  needful,  most  toothsome 
and  delightsome — you  may  get  it  all ;  and  in  a  sense  yon 
may  have  conquered  the  world,  and  yet  you  may  be  utterly 


88  PAITH   CONQUERING  THB   WORLD. 

beaten  and  enslaved  by  it.  Do  you  remember  the  old 
story — I  make  no  apology  for  the  plainness  of  it — of  the 
man  that  said  to  his  commanding  officer,  "  I  have  taken  a 
prisoner/'  "  Bring  him  along  with  you."  "  He  won't  let 
me."  "  Come  yourself,  then."  "  I  can't."  So  you  think 
you  have  conquered  the  world  when  it  yields  you  the 
things  you  want,  and  all  the  while  it  has  conquered  and 
captivated  you. 

You  say  "  Mine  1 "  It  would  be  a  great  deal  nearer  the 
truth  if  the  possessions,  or  the  love,  or  the  wealth,  or  the 
culture,  or  whatever  else  it  may  be,  that  you  have  set  your 
desire  upon,  were  to  rise  up  and  say  you  are  theirs  ! 
Utterly  beaten  and  enslaved  many  a  man  is  by  the  things 
that  he  vainly  fancies  he  has  mastered  and  conquered.  If 
you  think  of  how  in  the  process  of  getting,  you  narrow 
yourselves  ;  of  how  much  you  throw  away  ;  of  how  eyes 
become  blind  to  beauty  or  goodness  or  graciousness  ;  of 
how  you  become  the  slaves  of  the  thing  that  you  have 
won  ;  of  how  the  gold  gets  into  a  man's  blood  and  makes 
his  complexion  as  yellow  as  jaundice, — if  you  thii'k  of  all 
that,  and  how  desperate  and  wretched  you  would  be  if  in 
a  minute  it  was  all  swept  away,  and  how  it  absorbs  your 
thoughts  in  keeping  it  and  looking  after  it,  say,  is  it  you 
that  are  its  master,  or  it  that  is  yours  ? 

Now  let  us  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  teaching  of  this 
Epistle.  Following  in  the  footsteps  of  Jesus  Christ  Him- 
self, the  poor  man,  the  beaten  man,  the  unsuccessful  man, 
may  yet  say,  "  I  have  overcome  the  world. "  What  does 
that  mean  ?  Well,  it  is  built  upon  this, — the  world, 
meaning  thereby  the  sum  total  of  outward  things,  con- 
sidered as  apart  fi-om  God — the  world  and  God  we  make 
to  be  antagonists  to  one  another.  And  the  world  woos  me 
to  trust  to  it,  to  love  it ;  crowds  in  upon  my  eye  and  shuts 
out  the  greater  things  beyond  ;  absorbs  my  attention,  so 
that  if  I  let  it  have  its  own  way  I  have  no  leisure  to  think 


FAITH   CONQUERING  THE  WORLD.  89 

about  <inything  bnt  itself.  And  the  world  conquers  me 
when  It  succeeds  in  hindering  me  from  seeing,  loving, 
holding  communion  with  and  serving  my  Father,  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  conquer  it  when  I  lay  my  hand 
upon  it  and  force  it  to  help  me  to  get  nearer  Him,  to  get 
liker  Him,  to  think  more  often  of  Him,  to  do  His  will 
more  gladly  and  more  constantly.  The  one  victory  over 
the  world  is  to  bend  it  to  serve  me  in  the  highest  things — 
the  attainment  of  a  clearer  vision  of  the  Divine  nature,  the 
attainment  of  a  deeper  love  to  God  Himself,  and  of  a  more 
glad  consecration  and  service  to  Him.  That  is  the  victory, 
— when  you  can  make  the  world  a  ladder  to  lift  you  to 
God.  That  is  its  right  use,  that  is  victory,  when  all  its 
tempting  voices  do  not  draw  you  away  from  listening  to 
the  Supreme  Voice  that  bids  you  keep  His  commandments. 
When  the  world  comes  between  you  and  God  as  an  obscur- 
ing screen,  it  has  conquered  you.  When  the  world  comes 
between  you  and  God  as  a  transparent  medium,  you  have 
conquered  it.  To  win  victory  is  to  get  it  beneath  your 
feet  and  stand  upon  it,  and  reach  up  thereby  to  God. 

Now,  dear  brethren,  that  is  the  plain  teaching  of  all  this 
context,  and  I  would  lay  it  upon  your  hearts  and  upon  my 
own.  Do  not  let  us  be  deceived  by  the  false  estimates  of 
the  men  around  us.  Do  not  let  us  forget  that  the  one 
thing  we  have  to  live  for  is  to  know  God,  and  to  love  and 
to  please  Him,  and  that  every  life  is  a  disastrous  failure, 
whatsoever  outward  artificial  apparent  success  it  may  be 
enriched  and  beautified  with,  that  has  not  accomplished 
that. 

You  rule  Nature,  you  coerce  winds  and  lightnings  and 
flames  to  your  purposes.  Rule  the  world !  Rule  the 
world  by  making  it  help  you  to  be  wiser,  gentler,  nobler, 
more  gracious,  more  Christ-like,  more  Christ-conscious, 
more  full  of  God,  and  more  like  to  Him,  and  then  you 
will  get  the  deepest  delight  out  of  it.     If  a  man  wanted  to 


90  FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD. 

find  a  wine-press  that  should  squeeze  out  of  the  vintage 
of  this  world  its  last  di'op  of  sweetest  sweetness,  he  would 
find  it  in  constant  recognition  of  the  love  of  God,  and  in 
the  coercing  of  all  the  outward  and  the  visible  to  be  his 
help  thereto. 

There  are  the  two  theories  ;  the  one  that  we  are  all  apt 
to  fall  into,  of  what  success  and  victory  is  ;  the  other  the 
Christian  theory.  Ah  I  many  a  poor,  battered  Lazarus, 
full  of  sores,  a  pauper  and  a  mendicant  at  Dives'  gate  ; 
many  a  poor  old  cottager ;  many  a  lonely  woman  in  her 
garret ;  many  a  man  that  has  gone  away  from  Manchester, 
for  instance,  unable  to  get  on  in  business,  and  obliged  to 
creep  into  some  corner  and  hide  himself,  not  having  suc- 
ceeded in  making  a  fortune,  is  the  victor  !  And  many  a 
Dives,  fettered  by  his  own  possessions,  and  the  bond-slave 
of  his  own  successes,  is  beaten  by  the  world  shamefully 
and  disastrously  1  Pray  and  strive  for  the  purged  eyesight 
which  shall  teach  you  what  it  is  to  conquer  the  world, 
and  what  it  is  to  be  conquered  by  it. 

II. — ^And  now  let  me  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  second 
of  the  points  that  I  have  desired  to  put  before  you,  viz., 
the  method  by  which  this  victory  over  the  world,  of 
making  it  help  us  to  keep  the  commandments  of  God,  is 
to  be  accomplished.  We  find,  according  to  John's  fashion, 
a  three-fold  statement  in  this  context  upon  this  matter, 
each  member  of  which  con*esponds  to  and  heightens  the 
preceding.  We  read  thus  : — "  Whatsoever  is  born  of  God 
overcometh  the  world. "  "  This  is  the  victory  that  over- 
cometh  the  world,"  or  more  accurately,  ''''hath  overcome 
the  world,  even  our  faith."  Who  is  He  that  overcometh 
the  world  ?  He  that  believeth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  "  the 
Son  of  God."  Wherein  there  are,  speaking  roughly,  these 
three  statements,  that  the  true  victory  over  the  world  is 
won  by  a  new  life,  born  of  and  kindred  with  God  ;  that 
that  life  is  kindled  in  men's  souls  through  their   faith ; 


FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD.  91 

that  the  faith  which  kindles  that  supernatural  life,  the 
victorious  antagonist  of  the  world,  is  the  definite,  specific 
faith  in  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God.  These  are  the  three 
points  which  the  Apostle  puts  as  the  means  of  conquest 
of  the  world. 

The  first  consideration,  then,  suggested  by  these  state- 
ments is  that  the  one  victorious  antagonist  of  all  the 
powers  of  the  world  which  seek  to  draw  us  away  from 
God,  is  a  life  in  our  hearts  kindred  with  God,  and  derived 
from  God. 

Now  I  know  that  a  great  many  people  turn  away  from 
this  central  representation  of  Christianity  as  if  it  were 
mystical  and  intangible.  I  desire  to  lay  it  upon  your 
hearts,  dear  brethren,  that  every  Christian  man  has  re- 
ceived and  possesses  through  the  open  door  of  his  faith,  a 
life  supernatural,  born  of  God,  kindred  with  God,  there- 
fore having  nothing  kindred  with  evil,  and  therefore 
capable  of  meeting  and  mastering  all  the  temptations  of 
the  world. 

It  is  a  plain  piece  of  common-sense,  that  God  is  stronger 
than  this  material  universe,  and  that  what  is  born  of  God 
partakes  of  the  Divine  strength.  But  there  would  be  no 
comfort  in  that,  nor  would  it  be  anything  germane  and 
relevant  to  the  Apostle's  purpose,  unless  there  was  implied 
in  the  statement  what  in  fact  is  distinctly  asserted  more 
than  once  in  this  Epistle,  that  every  Christian  man  and 
woman  may  claim  to  be  thus  born  of  God.  Hearken  to 
the  words  that  almost  immediately  precede  our  text, 
*'  Whosoever  believeth  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  is  born  of 
God."  Hearken  to  other  words  which  proclaim  the  same 
truth.  "  To  as  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He 
power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  which  were  born,  not 
of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of 
God. "  He  does  come  with  all  the  might  of  His  regener- 
ating power  into  our  poor  natures,  if  and  when  we  turn 


92  FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD. 

ourselves  with  humble  faith  to  that  dear  Lord  ;  and 
breathes  into  our  deadness  a  new  life,  with  new  tastes, 
new  desires,  new  motives,  new  powers,  making  us  able  to 
wrestle  with  and  to  overcome  the  temptations  that  were 
too  strong  for  us. 

Mystical  and  deep  as  this  thought  may  be,  God's  nature 
is  breathed  into  the  spirits  of  men  that  will  trust  Him  ! 
and  if  you  will  put  your  confidence  in  that  dear  Lord, 
and  live  near  Him,  into  your  weakness  will  come  an 
energy  born  of  the  Divine,  and  you  will  be  able  to  do  all 
things  in  the  might  of  the  Christ  that  strengthens  you 
from  within,  and  is  the  life  of  your  life,  and  the  soul  of 
your  soul.  To  the  little  beleaguered  garrison  surrounded 
by  strong  enemies  through  whom  they  cannot  cut  their 
way,  the  king  sends  reliefs  who  force  their  passage  into 
the  fortress,  and  hold  it  against  all  the  power  of  the  foe.  You 
are  not  left  to  fight  by  yourselves,  you  can  conquer  the 
world  if  you  will  trust  to  that  Christ,  trusting  in  Whom 
God's  own  power  will  come  to  your  aid,  and  God's  own 
Spirit  will  be  the  strength  of  your  spirit. 

And  then  there  is  the  other  way  of  looking  at  this  same 
thing,  viz.,  you  can  conquer  the  world  if  you  will  trust  in 
Jesus  Christ,  because  such  trust  will  bring  you  into  con- 
stant, living,  loving  contact  with  the  Great  Conqueror. 
There  is  a  beautiful  accuracy  and  refinement  in  the  lan- 
guage of  these  three  clauses  which  is  not  represented  in 
our  Authorised  Version.  The  central  one  which  I  have 
read  as  my  text  this  morning  might  be  translated  as  it  is 
translated  in  the  Revised  Version — "  This  is  the  victory  that 
hath  overcome  the  world,  even  our  faith. "  By  which  I 
suppose  the  Apostle  means  very  much  what  I  am  saying 
now,  viz.,  that  my  faith  brings  me  into  contact  with  that 
one  great  victory  over  the  world  which  for  all  time  was 
won  by  Jesus  Christ.  I  can  appropriate  Christ's  conquest 
to  myself  if  I  trust  Him.  The  might  of  it  and  some  portion 


FAITH   CONQUERING   THE   WORLD.  93 

of  the  reality  of  it  passes  into  my  nature  in  the  measure 
in  which  I  rely  upon  Him.  He  conquered  once  for  all, 
and  the  very  remembrance  of  His  conquest,  by  faith  will 
make  me  strong — will  "  teach  my  hands  to  war  and  my 
fingers  to  fight. "  He  conquered  once  for  all,  and  His 
victory  will  pass,  with  electric  power,  into  my  life  if  I 
trust  Him.  I  am  brought  into  living  fellowship  with 
Him.  All  the  stimulation  of  example,  and  all  that 
lives  lofty  and  pure  can  do  for  us,  is  done  for  us  in  trans- 
cendant  fashion  by  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  all  that 
lives  lofty  and  pure  can  never  do  for  us  is  done  in  unique 
fashion  by  the  life  and  death  of  Him  Whose  life  and 
death  are  alike  the  victory  over  the  world  and  the  pattern 
for  us. 

So  if  we  join  ourselves  to  Him  by  faith,  and  bring  into 
our  daily  life,  in  all  its  ignoble  effort,  in  all  its  little 
duties,  in  all  its  wearisome  monotonies,  in  all  its  triviality, 
the  thought,  the  illuminating  thought,  the  ennobling 
thought,  of  the  victorious  Christ  our  companion  and  our 
Friend — in  hoc  signo  vinces — in  this  sign  thou  shalt  con- 
quer I  They  that  keep  hold  of  His  hand  see  over  the 
world  and  all  its  falsenesses  and  fleetingnesses.  They 
that  trust  in  Jesus  are  more  than  conquerors  by  the  might 
of  His  victory. 

And  then  there  is  the  last  thought,  which,  though  it  be 
not  directly  expressed  in  the  words  before  us,  is  yet  closely 
connected  with  them.  You  can  conquer  the  world  if  you 
will  trust  Jesus  Christ,  because  your  faith  will  bring  into 
the  midst  of  your  lives  the  grandest  and  most  solemn  and 
blessed  realities.  Faith  is  the  true  anasthesia  of  the  soul ; 
— the  thing  that  deadens  it  to  the  pains  and  the  pleasures 
that  come  from  this  fleeting  life.  As  for  the  pleasures,  1 
remember  reading  lately  of  some  thinker  of  our  own  land 
who  was  gazing  through  a  telescope  at  the  stars,  and 
turned  away  from  the  solemn  vision  with  one  remark,-  -**  I 


94  FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD. 

don't  think  much  of  our  county  families  I  "  And  if  you 
will  look  up  at  Christ  through  the  telescope  of  your  faith, 
it  is  wonderful  what  Lilliputians  the  Brobdignagians 
round  about  you  will  dwindle  into,  and  how  small  the 
world  will  look,  and  how  coarse  the  pleasures. 

If  a  man  goes  to  Italy,  and  lives  in  the  presence  of  the 
pictures  there,  it  is  marvellous  what  daubs  the  works  of 
art,  that  he  used  to  admire,  look  when  he  comes  back  to 
England  again.  And  if  he  has  been  in  communion  with 
Jesus  Christ,  and  has  found  out  what  real  sweetness  is,  he 
will  not  be  over-tempted  by  the  coarse  dainties  that  people 
eat  here.  Children  spoil  their  appetites  for  wholesome 
food  by  sweetmeats  ;  we  very  often  do  the  same  in  regard 
to  the  bread  of  God,  but  if  we  have  once  really  tasted  it, 
we  shall  not  care  very  much  for  the  vulgar  dainties  on 
the  world's  stall. 

Dear  brethren,  set  your  faith  upon  that  great  Lord,  and 
the  world's  pleasures  will  have  less  power  over  you,  and  as 
for  its  pains — 

"There's  nothing  either  good  or  bad. 
But  thinking  makes  it  so." 

If  a  man  does  not  think  that  the  world's  pains  are  of 
much  account,  they  are  not  of  much  account.  He  who 
sees  athwart  the  smoke  of  the  fire  of  Smithfield,  the  face 
of  the  Captain  of  his  warfare.  Who  has  conquered,  will 
dare  to  burn  and  will  not  dare  to  deny  his  Master  or  his 
Master's  truth.  The  world  may  threaten  in  hope  of  win- 
ning you  to  its  service,  but  if  its  threats,  turned  into 
realities,  fail  to  move  you,  it  is  the  world  which  inflicts, 
and  not  you  who  suffer,  that  is  beaten.  In  the  extremest 
case  they  "  kill  the  body  and  after  that  have  no  more  that 
they  can  do,"  and  if  they  have  done  all  they  can,  and 
have  not  succeeded  in  wringing  the  recantation  from  the 
locked  lips,  they  are  beaten,  and  the  poor  dead   martyr 


FAITH  CONQUERING  THE  WORLD.  95 

that  they  could  only  kill  has  conquered  them  and  their 
torments.  So  fear  not  all  that  the  world  can  do  against 
you.  If  you  have  got  a  little  spark  of  the  light  of  Christ*8 
presence  in  your  heart,  the  darkness  will  not  be  very  ter- 
rible, and  you  will  not  be  alone. 

So,  brethren,  two  questions  : — Does  your  faith  do  any- 
thing like  that  for  you  ?  If  it  does  not,  what  do  you  think 
is  the  worth  of  it  ?  Does  it  deaden  the  world's  delights  ? 
Does  it  lift  you  above  them  ?  Does  it  make  you  conqueror  ? 
If  it  does  not,  do  you  think  it  is  worth  calling  faith  ? 

And  the  other  question  is  :  Do  you  want  to  beat,  or  to 
be  beaten  ?  When  you  consult  your  true  self,  does  your 
conscience  not  tell  you  that  it  were  better  for  you  to  keep 
God's  commandments  than  to  obey  the  world  ?  Surely 
there  are  many  young  men  and  women  in  this  place  to 
day  who  have  some  desires  high,  and  true,  and  pure, 
though  often  KTined,  and  overcome,  and  crushed  down  ; 
and  many  older  folk  who  have  glimpses,  in  the  midst  of 
predominant  regard  for  the  things  that  are  seen  and  tem- 
poral, of  a  great  calm,  pure  region  away  up  there  that 
they  know  very  little  about. 

Dear  friends,  my  one  word  to  you  all  is  :  Get  near  Jesus 
Christ  by  thought,  and  love,  and  trust.  Trust  to  Him  and 
to  the  great  love  that  gave  itself  for  you.  And  then  bring 
Him  into  your  life,  by  daily  reference  to  Him  of  it  all  : 
and  by  cultivating  the  habit  of  thinking  about  Him  as 
being  present  with  you  in  the  midst  of  it  all,  and  so  hold- 
ing His  hand,  you  will  share  in  His  victory  ;  and  at  the 
last,  according  to  the  climax  of  His  sevenfold  promises, 
*'  To  Him  that  overcometh  will  I  give  to  sit  down  with 
Me  on  My  throne,  even  as  I  also  overcame,  and  am  sat 
down  with  My  Father  on  His  Throne. " 


m    REMEMBRANCE    OF   ME." 


SERMON  YIIl, 


"IN  REMEMBRANCE  OF  ME." 
"This  do  in  remembrance  of  He.**    lGorzi24. 

This  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians  is  prior  in  date  to  any 
of  the  Gospels,  consequently  we  have,  in  the  section  from 
which  my  text  is  taken,  the  earliest  account  of  the  insti- 
tution of  the  Lord's  Supper.  More  than  that,  the  account 
is  entirely  independent  of  the  oral  tradition  which  may 
be  supposed  to  have  preceded  the  written  Gospels  amongst 
the  Christian  communities.  For  the  Apostle  distinctly 
affirms,  in  the  immediate  context,  that  he  received  this 
narrative  of  the  institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper  from 
none  of  the  guests  in  that  upper  chamber,  but  from  the 
host  Himself. 

By  what  means  the  communication  was  made  it  boots 
not  to  inquire  ;  vision,  or  ecstacy,  or  special  revelation, 
we  know  not  how.  But  if  language  have  any  meaning, 
we  have  here  an  account  which  the  repeater  of  it  to  the 
Corinthian  Church  declares  he  got  straight  from  the  lips 
of  the  risen  Lord  Himself. 

Consequently  the  words  before  us,  and  the  whole 
section,  of  which  they  are  a  part,  afford  us  a  means  of 

b2 


100  "IN   REMEMBRANCE   OF  MB/' 

tracing  up  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  to  a 
period  very  near  in  time  to  the  death  of  Christ,  and  thus 
yield  to  us  a  very  strong  presumption,  in  addition  to  that 
of  the  Gospel  narrative,  of  the  historical  accuracy  of  the 
story,  and  a  valuable  indication  of  the  aspect  in  which  it 
was  regarded  by  the  primitive  belief  of  Christendom. 

The  occasion  for  the  utterance  of  the  words  of  my  text 
is  also  very  characteristic  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  instruc- 
tive to  us  :  If  it  had  not  been  for  some  abuses  in  the 
Corinthian  Church,  we  should  never  have  had  here  from 
his  lips  one  word  about  this  ordinance  ;  and  in  that  event 
there  would  have  been  scarcely  any  reference  in  the 
whole  New  Testament,  to  the  Lord's  supper  beyond  the 
short  narratives  in  three  out  of  the  four  Gospels. 

These  entirely  incidental,  fragmentary,  sparse  references 
in  the  New  Testament  to  all  matters  of  Church  organisa- 
tion, polity,  and  ritual,  ought  to  be  very  instructive  to  us 
as  to  where  the  true  centre  of  gravity  lies,  and  ought  to 
rebuke  the  attempts  that  are  made  to  lift  any  of  these  out- 
ward things,  the  form  of  the  sheepfold  or  any  of  the 
modes  of  worship,  into  a  position  of  more  than  secondary 
importance.  I  heard  someone  say,  a  day  or  two  ago,  that 
the  Emperor  of  Russia,  with  Nihilists  round  about  him 
ready  to  blow  him  up,  spends  most  of  his  time  in  design- 
ing buttons  for  the  uniforms  of  his  soldiers  ;  and  I  think 
Christian  men  who  waste  time  and  strength  over  such 
questions  at  this  day  are  not  much  wiser  than  that.  How- 
ever, that  is  not  what  I  wanted  to  talk  about  this  morning. 
I  desire  to  take  these  words  as  the  foundation  of  a  few 
remarks  in  reference  to  the  purpose  and  meaning  of  the 
great  rite  of  Christendom — the  Lord's  Supper. 

I. — And  first,  let  us  regard  it  as  a  memorial. 

Now,  observe  that  the  words  which  I  have  read  are 
even  stronger  in  the  original  than  they  are  in  our  trans- 
ition.    "This  do  in  remembrance  of  Me"  might  mean 


101 

'*  This  do  because  you  remember.  "  But  the  real  render- 
ing is  : — "  This  do  for  a  remembrance  of  Me  "  ;  "  in  order 
that  you  may  remember, "  or  "  lest  you  forget.  "  And 
the  words  are  all  but  a  verbatim  quotation  of  those  used 
in  the  institution  of  that  Passover  which  our  Lord,  with 
sovereign  authority,  brushed  aside  in  order  to  make  room 
for  His  own  memorial  rite.  "  This  day  shall  be  unto  you 
for  a  memorial, "  says  the  law  of  the  Passover.  The 
Lord's  Supper  was  grafted  upon  and  meant  to  supersede 
the  older  feast.  And  the  words  forming  our  text  must 
obviously  be  supposed  to  have  distinct  reference  to  those 
of  Exodus,  and  to  be  meant  to  substitute  for  the  memories 
so  stirring  to  Jewish  national  pride  and  devout  feeling, 
the  remembrance  of  Him  as  the  one  thing  needful. 

Notice  also  that  this  is  Christ's  own  distinct  statement 
of  the  purpose  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  "  for  a  *  remembrance,' 
in  order  to  bring  Me  again  to  your  recollection."  I  suppose 
He  is  likely  to  have  put  foremost  the  main  purpose  of  the 
ceremonial,  and  I  suppose  that  if  there  be  any  alleged 
purposes  of  it,  of  which  there  is  no  hint  to  be  gathered 
from  His  own  distinct  statement  of  what  the  meaning  of 
the  rite  is,  that  is  a  strong  argument  against  these.  So  I 
want  you  to  mark  that  Christ  Himself  has  told  us  that  this 
rite  is  meant  to  bring  Him  to  our  remembrance,  and  that 
He  has  given  us  no  other  statement  of  its  purpose  but  that. 
Nor  will  you  find  anywhere  in  the  New  Testament  any 
statement  of  the  purpose  of  the  Lord's  Supper  additional 
to  this.  And  so  I  say  that  all  our  theories  about  the 
meaning  and  value  and  virtue  of  this  Communion  Service 
must  be  found  within  the  four  corners  of  that  word  : — 
"  This  do  for  a  remembrance  of  Me  1  " — a  memorial  rite, 
and  as  far  as  I  know,  nothing  more  whatsoever.  Nothing 
more,  certainly,  in  so  far  as  Christ's  own  solemn  declara- 
tion of  its  purpose,  and  of  His  intention  in  establishing  it, 
can  be  supposed  to  a:o. 


102  "IN  REMEMBRANCE  OP  MB." 

Notice  further  about  this  first  part  of  my  subject : — of 
what  the  Lord's  Supper  is  a  memorial,  viz.,  "  A  memorial 
of  Me. "  Of  Me !  I  do  not  need  to  dwell  upon  what  I 
have  hinted  already — the  remarkable  way  in  which  Christ 
deals,  as  One  that  has  authority,  with  the  sacredest  rite  of 
the  nation  to  which  He  and  His  Apostles  belonged ; 
brushing  aside  the  thing  that  for  centuries  had  been  the 
very  Palladium  of  their  national  life,  and  the  vital  centre 
of  their  national  worship  ;  and  saying  in  effect : — "  Moses 
and  that  old  redemption  that  you  have  heard  about  all 
these  centuries,  are  antiquated ;  and  a  mere  flickering 
taper  light  as  compared  with  the  redemption  that  I  bring. 
You  have  remembered  him  and  his  deliverance  ;  forget 
him  1  Lo,  the  shadow  passes,  and  here  I  stand,  the  sub- 
stance 1  Do  this  ;  never  mind  about  your  old  Passover ; 
—that  is  done  with,  wheeled  away  into  a  corner  and  for- 
gotten. Do  this  in  remembrance — no  longer  of  dead 
Pharaohs  and  exhausted  deliverances,  but  do  this  in 
remembrance  of  an  everloving  friend  and  helper  ;  and  of 
a  redemption  that  shall  never  pass  away.  *In  remem- 
brance of  Me  I' " 

What  a  marvellous,  unique,  majestic  prevision  that  was, 
that  from  that  little  room,  in  some  upper  chamber  in  that 
obscure  corner  of  the  world,  looked  all  down  the  ages  and 
expected  that  to  the  end  of  time  men  would  turn  to  Him 
with  passionate  thankfulness,  and  with  a  flame  of  love 
ever  leaping  in  their  hearts  1  And  more  wonderful  still, 
the  forecast  has  been  true,  and  the  memory  of  millions 
turns  to  one  thing  in  the  past  as  the  centre  of  life,  the 
Cross  of  Christ,  and  to  one  thing  in  the  future  as  the 
fountain  of  Hope — the  Throne  of  the  crucified  Christ. 
"  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  Me." 

And  as  majestic  as  is  the  authority  so  tender  and  gracious 
is  the  condescension  : — "Do  tJiis  for  a  remembrance."  He 
does  not  rely  upon  His  mighty  love  and  sacrifice  for  the 


"IN  RBMBMBRANCB  OP  MB."  103 

remembrance,  the  grateful  remembrance  of  the  world,  but 
He  consents  and  condescends  to  trust  some  portion  of  our 
remembrance  of  Him  to  mere  outward  things.  The  world, 
time,  sense,  the  material  and  the  visible  come  rushing  in 
npon  us  and  make  us  forget.  Like  a  snowstorm  in  an 
American  winter,  our  atmosphere  is  all  filled  with  the 
flying  motes,  almost  impalpable,  of  the  thick  driving 
trifles  that  hide  the  sky  from  us.  The  fluttering  flakes  of 
ever-recurring  cares  and  duties,  joys  and  sorrows,  obscure 
the  blue  and  the  Christ  that  is  there. 

And  so  He  takes  and  uses  for  once  the  things  of  time 
and  sense  to  fight  the  things  of  time  and  sense  with,  and 
says  : — "  The  visible  shall  serve  Me  in  this  one  instance  ; 
and  the  material  elements  shall  conspire  to  help  you  to 
remember  My  great  love." 

Surely  we  need  all  the  help  we  can  get  to  keep  His 
memory  vivid  and  fresh  in  spite  of  the  pressure  of  the 
visible  and  temporal.  If  it  be  possible  to  bring  Him  and 
His  great  world  of  love  before  our  minds  through  the  help 
of  sight  as  well  as  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  we  shall  be 
armed  with  double  armour. 

The  purpose  of  Christ  in  instituting  this  rite  is  simply 
^that  men  should  have  presented  to  them  in  visible  form, 
as  well  as  in  audible  form  by  the  spoken  voice,  the  facts 
on  which  their  salvation  depends.  Although  the  differ- 
ences are  infinite  in  regard  of  the  sacredness  of  the  person 
and  the  thing  to  be  remembered,  shall  I  shock  any  of  you 
if  I  say  that  I  know  no  difference  in  kind  between  the 
bread  and  the  wine  that  is  for  a  memorial  of  Christ's  dying 
love,  and  the  handkerchief  dipped  in  blood,  sent  from  the 
scaffold  by  a  dying  King  with  the  one  message  : — "  Re- 
member 1 "    "  Do  this  for  a  memorial   of  me  1 " 

II. — I  come  to  the  next  point  that  I  wish  to  touch  on, 
viz.  the  Lord's  Supper  as  being  what  is  called  a  means  of 
grace  ;  or,  less  technically,  a  source  of  religious  profit  and 


104  ••IN  REMEMBRANCE  OP  MB.** 

growth.  Now,  if  what  I  have  been  saying  about  the  one 
purpose  of  this  Communion  rite  be  true,  there  follows 
from  it,  as  a  matter  of  course,  this — ^that  the  only  way  by 
which  this  or  any  other  outward  ceremony  can  do  a  man 
any  good  is  by  its  fulfilling  the  purpose  for  which  it  was 
appointed,  and  setting  him  to  think  of  and  feel  the  truth 
that  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  I  know  only  one  way  by  which 
what  theologians  call  grace  can  get  into  men's  souls,  and 
that  is  through  the  occupation  of  a  man's  understanding, 
heart,  and  will,  with  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Gospel  that  tells 
of  Him.  To  think  of  Him,  to  contemplate  Him,  to  love 
Him,  and  to  yield  the  submission  of  the  will  and  the  life 
to  Him  : — ^that  is,  at  bottom,  the  one  channel  through 
which  all  God's  grace  comes  to  a  man's  heart ;  and  the 
good  that  any  outward  thing  does  us,  the  good  that  any 
act  of  worship  does  us,  that  any  rite  or  ceremony  whatso- 
ever does  us,  is  only  this  :  that  it  brings  before  us  the 
truth  on  which  our  hopes  depend,  and  knits  to  our  con- 
templation and  our  heart  the  Christ  and  His  love  ;  and  the 
measure  in  which  it  does  that  is  the  exact  measure  of  the 
blessing  that  it  works  upon  us. 

I  can  find  nothing  more  than  this  in  this  Communion, 
except  only  that  it  is  obedience  to  a  definite  command  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  so  has  the  blessing  which  always  follows 
upon  obedience  to  Him.  These  two,  the  blessing  that 
comes  from  obedience  to  His  commandment  and  the 
blessing  that  comes  from  having  our  thoughts  turned  to 
Him,  and  faith  and  hope  excited  and  kindled  towards 
Him — these  exhaust,  as  far  as  I  know,  the  whole  of  the 
good  that  that  Communion  Service  does  to  any  man. 

And  I  think  all  that  is  confirmed  very  strongly  by  the 
remarks  in  the  context  about  the  mischief  that  it  some- 
times does  to  people.  We  read  there  words  which  super- 
stition has  laid  hold  of  in  order  to  darken  the  whole 
horizon,  and  turn  the  whole  purpose  of  the  Lord's  Supper 


"IN   REMEMBRANCE  OF  MB."  105 

to  another  thing  altogether  from  what  it  was  in  its 
original  institution.  We  read  in  the  context  about  an  un- 
worthy partaking,  and  that  unworthy  partaking  is  defined. 
— Whoso  eateth  and  drinketh "  (not  "  unworthily,"  for 
that  word  in  that  verse  is  an  unauthorised  supplement), 
"  eateth  and  drinketh  judgment  to  Himself ,  not  discerning 
the  Lord's  Body." 

That  is  to  say,  unworthy  participation  is  a  participation 
which  does  not  use  the  external  symbols  as  a  means  of 
turning  thought  and  feeling  to  Christ  and  His  death  ;  and 
unworthy  participation  does  a  man  harm,  as  unworthy 
handling  of  any  outward  rite  does. 

I  preach  a  sermon.  I  try  with  words  here  to  lead  men 
to  look  to  Jesus  Christ.  If  my  poor  attempt  fail  and  my 
words  come  between  you  and  Him  rather  as  an  obscuring 
medium  than  as  a  transparent  medium,  then  my  sermon 
does  you  harm.  You  read  a  hymn.  The  hymn  is  meant 
to  lead  you  up  to  Christ  your  Saviour  in  aspiration  and 
devotion.    If  it  does  not  do  that,  then  it  does  you  harm. 

If  through  the  outward  ritual  we  see  Christ,  we  get  all 
the  good  that  the  outward  ritual  can  do  us.  If  through 
the  outward  rite  we  do  not  see  Him,  if  the  coloured  glass 
stay  the  eye  instead  of  leading  it  on,  then  the  rite  does  us 
harm.  To  my  judgment  the  difference  between  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  its  operation  upon  the  Christian  life, 
and  a  sermon  or  a  prayer  or  the  reading  of  a  chapter 
or  any  other  piece  of  Christian  worship  and  service  and 
their  operation  lie  here  ;  that,  first,  one  is  more  defin- 
itely a  commandment  than  the  other  ;  second,  that 
the  one  presents  the  truth  more  directly  to  the  under- 
standing through  the  ear,  and  that  the  other  presents  it  in 
symbolical  and  pictorial  form  through  the  eye,  and 
third,  that  in  the  participation  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
there  is  an  increased  sacredness  by  reason  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  thing  of  which  it  is  a  memorial,  and  by  reason 


106  "IN  REMEMBRANCE  OP   MB." 

that  it  is  a  more  personal  profession  of  faith  therein. 
These  points,  I  think,  exhaust  all  that  the  New  Testament 
tells  in  reference  to  its  sanctity. 

And  sure  I  am  that  neither  it  nor  anything  else  can  do 
a  man  spiritual  good,  except  by  one  way,  and  on  one  con- 
dition. All  outward  rites  and  forms  are  "  schoolmasters 
to  bring  us  to  Christ. "  If  they  do  that  they  help  us,  if 
they  do  not,  they  hurt  us.  The  one  condition  of  spiritual 
blessing  is  union  with  Him,  the  one  means  of  union  with 
Him  is  the  exercise  of  faith  and  love  towards  Him.  If 
the  rite  strengthen  this,  it  has  blessed  you  ;  if  it  does 
not,  it  is  a  curse  to  you. 

How  the  whole  fabric  of  superstitious  sacerdotalism 
and  externalism  that  has  cursed  God's  Church  for  cen- 
turies disappears  when  once  men  find  out  that  there  is 
nothing  to  help  them  but  only  their  grasp  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  that  the  only  way  of  grasping  Him  is  by  faith  and 
love,  and  that  the  only  good  of  anything  ritual  is  as  sub- 
serving that,  and  perchance  stimulating  and  increasing 
these  I 

III. — And  so,  lastly,  and  briefly,  there  is  another  aspect 
of  this  rite,  which  is  set  forth  in  these  words,  namely, 
the  Lord's  Supper  as  a  witness  for  Christian  truth. 

"  This  do  for  a  remembrance  of  Me  !  "  I  do  not  dwell 
further  upon  what  I  have  already  said  about  the  signifi- 
cance of  that  extraordinary  self -consciousness  which  here 
claims  to  the  end  of  time  the  reverence,  the  regard,  the 
remembrance  of  humanity.  Nor  do  I  merely  mean  that 
the  Lord's  Supper,  by  reason  of  its  very  early  origin  and 
the  history  of  Christianity,  is  a  witness  as  to  the  belief 
predominant  at  the  point  of  origin.  But  what  I  mean  is 
this : — Christ  Himself,  if  we  accept  the  story  of  the 
Gospels  and  of  this  chapter,  has  appointed  this  institution 
and  selected  for  us,  by  the  pointing  of  His  finger,  the 
part  of  His  mission  which  He  considers  the  vital  and  all- 


"IN  REMEMBRANCE  OF   ME.**  107 

important  centre  : — "  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  Me  I  *' 
"  This  is  My  body,  broken  for  you.  This  is  the  new 
covenant  in  My  blood,  shed  for  many,  "  according  to  the 
other  version  in  one  of  the  Gospels, "  for  the  remission 
of  sins.  *' 

There  is  the  heart  of  Christ's  work,  my  brother.  Tliat 
death  is  the  kernel  of  objective  Christianity.  Not  His 
words,  not  His  loving  deeds  of  mercy,  not  His  tenderness, 
to  nothing  of  all  these  does  He  point  us.  They  are  all 
included  and  subordinated,  but  He  points  us  to  His 
violent  death  ;  for  from  the  fact  that  "  body  "  and  "  blood  " 
are  contemplated  apart,  it  is  clear  that  not  merely  death, 
but  a  violent  death  was  in  His  mind.  He  points  us  to 
His  violent  death,  as  if  He  said,  "  There  is  the  thing  that 
is  to  touch  hearts  and  change  lives,  and  bind  men  to  Me 
with  endless  bonds  of  deep  and  life-transforming  grati- 
tude.** 

Christ  Himself  has  taught  us  that  what  He  will  have 
to  be  remembered  through  all  generations  is  the  fact  that 
He  died,  the  fact  that  He  died  for  us,  the  fact  that  in  His 
blood  is  the  covenant  of  our  pardon,  and  of  our  peace 
with  God.  Forms  of  Christianity  which  have  let  go  the 
Incarnation  and  the  Atonement  do  not  know  what  to 
make  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  There  is  no  room  for  it 
amongst  them,  and  practically  you  will  find  that  such 
forms  of  Christianity  have  relegated  it  to  a  corner,  and 
have  almost  disused  it.  They  who  do  not  feel  that 
Christ's  death  is  their  peace,  do  not  feel  that  the  rite  that 
commemorates  the  broken  Body  and  the  shed  Blood  is 
the  centre  of  Christian  worship. 

I  dare  say  I  am  speaking  to  people  this  morning  who 
regard  it  as  a  very  unnecessary  part  of  Christian  service. 
My  brother,  Jesus  Christ  knew  what  He  meant  by  His 
work  quite  as  well  as  you  do,  and  he  thought  that  the 
part  of  it   which   most    concerns   us   to   remember   wai 


108  •*!»  REMEMBRANCE   OF  MB." 

this  :  "  that  He  died  for  our  sins,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures." I  commend  that  thought  to  you,  and  point  to  that 
table  as  a  witness  to  every  man  and  woman  who  believes 
that  this  Communion  was  established  by  Jesus  Christ 
Himself,  that  the  centre  of  Christian  truth  and  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  is  the  good  news  of  His  death  on  the 
Cross  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world. 

And  now  I  ask  you,  dear  brethren,  to  remember  this, 
that  as  plain  and  distinct  as  the  teaching  is  of  this 
ordinance  in  reference  to  what  is  the  living  heart  of 
Christ's  work  for  us,  so  plain  and  distinct  is  its  teaching 
in  reference  to  what  is  our  way  of  making  that  work  ours. 

We  eat  that  we  may  live,  we  take  the  bread  that  perish- 
eth  into  our  lips,  masticate  and  swallow  and  the  food  is 
assimilated  to  our  body,  and  so  we  are  nourished. 

We  take  Christ.  "  Believe  and  thou  hast  eaten,"  says 
Augustine.  We  take  Christ,  the  fact  of  His  death,  of  His 
love,  of  His  personal  life  for  us  to-day,  and  by  faith  we 
partake  of  Him,  and  the  body  is  assimilated  to  the  food, 
and  so  in  that  higher  region  we  live.  If  we  are  to  have 
life  in  us,  it  must  be  by  no  outward  connection  through 
ritual  and  ceremony,  but  by  an  inward  possession  ol  that 
which  ritual  and  ceremony  proclaim,  namely,  the  life  of 
Him  that  lived  that  we  may  be  partakers  of  His  Resurrec- 
tion, the  death  of  Him  that  died  that  in  Him  we  toG  Yi^ight 
die  to  self  and  sin. 

This  table  preaches  to  us  all,  "  My  flesh  is  meat  int.eed, 
and  My  blood  is  drink  indeed."  And  it  preacher  n(  less 
emphatically  the  other  great  word,  "Whoso  ea^ith  My 
flesh  and  drinketh  My  blood  hath  eternal  life  ;  a*  .  '  //ill 
raise  him  up  at  the  last  day." 


30W   TO   SWEETEN   THE    LIFE    OF   GREAT 
CITIES. 


SERMON   IX. 


HOW  TO  SWEETEN  THE  LIFE  OP  GREAT  CITIES. 

**  me  priests  repaired  every  one  over  against  his  house. "    Nehemlah  ilL  S8. 

The  condition  of  our  great  cities  has  lately  been  forcec? 
upon  public  attention,  and  all  kinds  of  men  have  been 
offering  their  panaceas.  I  am  not  about  to  enter  upon 
that  discussion,  but  as  we  are  making  a  collection  this 
morning  for  our  Manchester  City  Mission  I  am  glad  to 
seize  the  opportunity  of  saying  one  or  two  things  which 
I  think  very  much  need  to  be  said  to  individual  Christian 
people  about  their  duty  in  the  matter.  "  Every  man  over 
against  his  house, "  is  the  principle  I  want  to  commend 
to  you  this  morning  as  going  a  long  way  to  solve  the 
problem  of  how  to  sweeten  the  foul  life  of  our  modern 
cities. 

The  story  from  which  my  text  is  taken  does  not  need 
to  detain  us  long.  Nehemiah  and  his  little  band  of  exiles 
have  come  back  to  a  ruined  Jerusalem.  Their  first  care 
is  to  provide  for  their  safety,  and  the  first  step  is  to  know 
the  exact  extent  of  their  defencelessness.    So  we  hav© 


112  HOW  TO  SWEETEN  THE  LIPB 

the  account  of  Nehemiah's  midnight  ride  amongst  the 
ruins  of  the  broken  walls.  And  then  we  read  of  the  co- 
operation of  all  classes  in  the  work  of  reconstruction. 
**  Many  hands  made  light  work. "  Men  and  women, 
priests  and  nobles,  goldsmiths,  apothecaries,  merchants, 
all  seized  trowel  or  spade,  and  wheeled  and  piled.  One 
man  puts  up  a  long  length  of  wall,  another  can  only  ven- 
ture a  little  bit  ;  another  undertakes  the  locks,  bolts,  and 
bars  for  the  gates.  Roughly  and  hastily  the  work  is  done. 
The  result,  of  course,  is  very  unlike  the  stately  structures 
of  Solomon's  or  of  Herod's  time,  but  it  is  enough  for 
shelter.  We  can  imagine  the  sigh  of  relief  with  which 
they  looked  upon  the  completed  circle  of  their  rude  forti- 
fications. 

The  principle  of  division  of  labour  in  our  text  is  re- 
peated several  times  in  this  list  of  the  builders.  It  was  a 
natural  one  ;  a  man  would  work  all  the  better  when  he 
saw  his  own  roof  mutely  appealing  to  be  defended,  and 
thought  of  the  dear  ones  that  were  there.  But  I  take 
these  words  mainly  as  suggesting  some  thoughts  applica- 
ble to  the  duties  of  Christian  people  in  view  of  the 
spiritual  wants  of  our  great  cities. 

I, — I  need  not  do  more  than  say  a  word  or  two  about 
the  ruins  which  need  repair.  If  I  dwell  rather  upon  the 
dark  side  than  on  the  bright  side  of  city  life  I  shall  not 
be  understood  as  forgetting  that  the  very  causes  which 
intensify  the  evil  of  a  great  city  quicken  the  good — the 
friction  of  multitudes  and  the  impetus  thereby  given  to 
all  kinds  of  mental  activity.  Here  amongst  us  there  is 
much  that  is  admirable  and  noble — much  public  spirit, 
much  wise  and  benevolent  expenditure  of  thought  and 
toil  for  the  general  good,  much  conjoint  action  by  men 
of  different  parties,  earnest  antagonism  and  earnest  co- 
operation, and  a  free,  bracing  intellectual  atmosphere, 
which  stimulates  activity.     All  that  is  true,  though,  on 


OF   GREAT   CITIES.  lib 

the  other  hand,  it  is  not  good  to  live  always  within 
hearing  of  the  clatter  of  machinery  and  the  strife  ol 
tongues  ;  and  the  wisdom  that  is  born  of  solitary  medita- 
tion and  quiet  thought  is  less  frequently  met  with  in 
cities  than  the  cleverness  that  is  bom  of  intercourse  with 
men,  and  newspaper  reading. 

But  there  is  a  tragic  other  side  to  all  that,  which  mostly 
we  make  up  our  minds  to  say  little  about  and  to  forget. 
I  confess  that  I  have  been  rather  surprised  that  the 
"  Bitter  Cry  of  Outcast  London, "  and  of  "  Squalid  Liver- 
pool "  should  have  been  so  much  of  a  discovery.  The 
indifference  which  has  made  that  ignorance  possible,  and 
has  in  its  turn  been  fed  by  the  ignorance,  is  in  some 
respects  a  more  shocking  phenomenon  than  the  vicious 
life  which  it  has  allowed  to  rot  and  to  reek  unheeded. 

Most  of  us  have  got  so  familiarised  with  the  evils  that 
stare  us  in  the  face  every  time  we  go  out  upon  the  pave- 
ments, that  we  have  come  to  think  of  them  as  being 
inseparable  from  our  modern  life,  like  the  noise  of  a 
carriage  wheel  from  its  rotation.  And  is  it  so  then  ?  Is 
it  indeed  inevitable  that  within  a  stone's  throw  of  our 
churches  and  chapels  there  should  be  thousands  of  men 
and  women  that  have  never  been  inside  a  place  of  worship 
since  they  were  christened ;  and  have  no  more  religion 
than  a  horse  ?  Must  it  be  that  the  shining  structure  of 
our  modern  society,  like  an  old  Mexican  temple,  must  be 
built  upon  a  layer  of  living  men,  flung  in  for  a  foundation  ! 
Can  it  not  be  helped  that  there  should  be  streets  in 
Manchester  into  which  it  is  unfit  for  a  decent  woman  to  go 
by  day  alone,  and  unsafe  for  a  brave  man  to  venture  after 
nightfall?  Must  men  and  women  huddle  together  in  dens 
where  decency  is  as  impossible  as  it  is  for  swine  in  a  stye  ? 
Is  it  an  indispensable  part  of  our  material  progress  and 
wonderful  civilisation  that  vice  and  crime  and  utter  irre- 
ligion  and  hopeless  squalor  should  go  with  it  ?    Can  all 

I 


114  HOW  TO  SWEETEN   THE   LIFE 

that  bilge  water  really  not  be  pumped  out  of  the  ship  ?  If 
it  be  so,  then  I  venture  to  say  that,  to  a  very  large  extent, 
progress  is  a  delusion,  and  that  the  simple  life  of  agricul- 
tural communities  is  better  than  this  unwholesome 
aggregation  of  men. 

The  beginning  of  Nehemiah's  work  of  repair  was  that 
sad  midnight  ride  round  the  ruined  walls.  So  there  is  a 
solemn  obligation  laid  on  Christian  people  to  acquaint 
themselves  with  the  awful  facts,  and  then  to  meditate  on 
them,  till  sacred,  Christ-like  compassion,  pressing  against 
the  flood-gates  of  the  heart,  flings  them  open,  and  lets  out 
a  stream  of  helpful  pity  and  saving  deeds. 

"  If  thou  forbear  to  deliver  them  that  are  drawn  unto 
death,  those  that  ready  to  be  slain ;  if  thou  sayest :  Behold  1 
we  knew  it  not  1  doth  not  He  that  pondereth  the  heart 
consider  it ;  and  shall  He  not  render  to  every  man  accord- 
ing to  his  works  ?" 

II. — So  much  for  my  first  point.  My  second  is — ^the 
ruin  is  to  be  repaired  mainly  by  the  old  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  pit  remedies  against  each 
other.  The  causes  are  complicated,  and  the  cure  must  be 
as  manifold  as  the  causes.  For  my  own  part  I  believe 
that,  in  regard  of  the  condition  of  the  lowest  of  our  out- 
cast population,  drink  and  lust  have  done  it  almost  all, 
and  that  for  all  but  an  infinitesimal  portion  of  it,  intem- 
perance is  directly  or  indirectly  the  cause.  That  has  to 
be  fought  by  the  distinct  preaching  of  abstinence,  and  by 
the  invoking  of  legislative  restriction?  upon  the  trafiB.c. 
Wretched  homes  have  to  be  dealt  with  by  sanitary  reform, 
which  may  require  municipal  and  parliamentary  action. 
Domestic  discomfort  has  to  be  dealt  with  by  teaching 
wives  the  principles  of  domestic  economy.  The  gracious 
influence  of  art  and  music,  pictures  and  window  garden- 
ing, and  the  like,  will  lend  their  aid  to  soften  and  refine. 
Coffee  taverns,  baths  and  wash-houses,  workmen's  clubs, 


OP   GREAT   CITIES.  115 

and  many  other  agencies  are  doing  real  and  good  work.  I, 
for  one,  say,  God  speed  to  them  all,  and  willingly  help  them 
80  far  as  I  can. 

But,  as  a  Christian  man,  I  believe  that  I  know  a  thing  that 
if  lodged  in  a  man's  heart,  will  do  pretty  nearly  all  which 
they  aspire  to  do  ;  and  whilst  I  rejoice  in  the  multiplied 
agencies  for  social  elevation,  I  believe  that  I  shall  best 
serve  my  generation,  and  I  believe  that  ninety-nine  out  of  a 
hundred  of  you  will  do  so  too  by  trying  to  get  men  to 
love  and  fear  Jesus  Christ  the  Saviour.  If  you  can  get 
His  love  into  a  man's  heart,  that  will  produce  new  tastes 
and  new  inclinations,  which  will  reform,  and  sweeten, 
and  purify  faster  than  anything  else  does. 

They  tell  us  that  Nonconformist  ministers  are  never 
seen  in  the  slums  ;  well,  that  is  a  libel  1  But  I  should  like 
to  ask  why  it  is  the  Roman  Catholic  priest  is  seen  there 
more  than  the  Nonconformist  minister.  Because  the  one 
man's  congregation  is  there,  and  the  other  man's  is  not — 
which  being  translated  into  other  words  is  this  :  the  re- 
ligion of  Jesus  Christ  mostly  keeps  people  out  of  the  slums, 
and  certainly  it  will  take  a  man  out  of  them  if  once  it 
gets  into  his  heart,  more  certainly  and  quickly  than  any- 
thing else  will. 

So,  dear  friends,  if  we  have  in  our  hearts  and  in  our 
hands  this  great  message  of  God's  love,  we  have  in  our 
possession  the  germ  out  of  which  all  things  that  are  lovely 
and  of  good  report  will  grow.  It  will  purify,  elevate,  and 
sweeten  society,  because  it  will  make  individuals  pure 
and  strong,  and  homes  holy  and  happy.  We  do  not  need 
to  draw  comparisons  between  this  and  other  means  of 
reparation,  and  still  less  to  feel  any  antagonism  to  them 
or  the  benevolent  men  who  work  them  ;  but  we  should  fix 
it  in  our  minds  that  the  principles  of  Christ's  Gospel  ad- 
hered to  by  individuals  and  therefore  by  communities, 
would  have  rendered  such  a  condition  of  things  impossi- 

i2 


116  HOW   TO   SWEETEN   THE   LIFE 

ble,  and  that  the  true  repair  of  the  ruin  wrought  by  e\i\ 
and  ignorance,  in  the  single  soul,  in  the  family,  the  city, 
the  nation,  the  world,  is  to  be  found  in  building  anew  on 
the  One  Foundation  which  God  has  laid,  even  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Living  Stone,  Whose  pure  life  passes  into  all 
that  are  grounded  and  founded  on  Him. 

III. — Lastly,  this  remedy  is  to  be  applied  by  the  in- 
dividual action  of  Christian  men  and  women  on  the  people 
nearest  them. 

"  The  priests  repaired  every  one  over  against  his  own 
house."  We  are  always  tempted  in  the  face  of  large 
disasters,  to  look  for  heroic  and  large  remedies,  and  to 
invoke  corporate  action  of  some  sort,  which  is  a  great  deal 
easier  for  most  of  us  than  the  personal  effort  that  is  re- 
quired. When  a  great  scandal  and  danger  like  this  of  the 
condition  of  the  lower  layers  of  our  civic  population  is 
presented  before  men,  for  one  man  that  says  "  What  can 
/  do  ?  "  there  are  twenty  who  say,  "  Somebody  should  do 
something.  Goverment  should  do  something.  The  Cor- 
poration should  do  something.  This,  thctt,  or  the  other 
aggregate  of  men  should  do  something."  And  the  in- 
dividual calmly  and  comfortably  slips  his  neck  out  of  the 
collar  and  leaves  it  on  the  shoulders  of  these  abstractions. 

As  I  have  said,  there  are  plenty  of  things  that  need  to 
be  done  by  these  somebodies.  But  what  they  do  (they 
will  be  a  long  time  in  doing  it)  when  they  do  get  to  work 
will  only  touch  the  fringe  of  the  question,  and  the  sub- 
stance and  the  centre  of  it  you  can  set  to  work  upon  this 
afternoon  if  you  like,  and  not  wait  for  anybody  either  to 
set  you  the  example  or  to  shew  you  the  way. 

If  you  want  to  do  people  good  you  can  ;  but  you  have 
got  to  pay  the  price  for  it.  That  price  is  personal  sacrifice 
and  eflEort.  The  example  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  all-instruc- 
tive one  in  the  case.  People  talk  about  Him  being  their 
pattern,  but  they  often  forget  that  whatever  more  there 


OP   GREAT   CITIES.  117 

was  in  Christ's  Cross  and  Passion  there  was  this  in  It : — 
the  exemplification  for  all  time  of  the  one  law  by  which 
any  reformation  can  be  wrought  on  men — that  a  sympa- 
thising man  shall  give  himself  to  do  it,  and  that  by 
personal  influence  alone  men  shall  be  drawn  and  won 
from  out  of  the  darkness  and  filth.  A  loving  heart  and  a 
sympathetic  word,  the  exhibition  of  a  Christian  life  and 
conduct,  the  fact  of  going  down  into  the  midst  of  evil 
and  trying  to  lift  men  out  of  it,  are  the  old-fashioned  and 
only  magnets  by  which  men  are  drawn  to  purer  and 
higher  life.  That  is  God's  way  of  saving  the  world— 
by  the  action  of  single  souls  on  single  souls.  Masses  of 
men  can  neither  save  nor  be  saved.  Not  in  groups,  but 
one  by  one,  particle  by  particle,  soul  by  soul,  Christ  draws 
men  to  Himself,  and  He  does  His  work  in  the  world 
through  single  souls  on  fire  with  His  love,  and  tender 
with  pity  learned  of  Him. 

So,  dear  friends,  do  not  think  that  any  organisation, 
any  corporate  activity,  any  substitution  of  vicarious 
service,  will  solve  the  problem.  It  will  not.  There  is 
only  one  way  of  doing  it,  the  old  way  that  we  must  tread 
if  we  are  going  to  do  anything  for  God  and  our  fellows  : 
"The  priests  repaired  everyone  over  against  his  own 
house. " 

Let  me  briefly  point  out  some  very  plain  and  obvious 
things  which  bear  upon  this  matter  of  individual  action. 
Let  me  remind  you  that  if  j^ii  are  a  Christian  man  yon 
have  in  your  possession  the  thing  which  will  cure  the 
world's  woe,  and  possession  involves  responsibility. 
What  w^ould  you  think  of  a  man  that  harl  a  specific  for 
some  pestilence  that  was  raging  in  a  city,  and  was  con- 
tented to  keep  it  for  his  own  use,  or  at  most  for  his 
family's  use,  when  his  brethren  were  dying  by  the 
thousand,  and  their  corpses  polluting  the  air  ?  And  what 
shall  we  say  of   men  and    women  who  call   themselves 


118  HOW   TO  SWEETEN  THE  LIPH 

Christians,  who  have  some  faith  in  that  great  Lord  and 
His  mighty  sacrifice  ;  who  know  that  the  men  they  meet 
with  every  day  of  their  lives  are  dying  for  want  of  it,  and 
who  yet  themselves  do  absolutely  nothing  to  spread  His 
name,  and  to  heal  men's  hurts  ?  What  shall  we  say  ?  God 
forbid  that  we  should  say  they  are  not  Christians  ;  but 
God  forbid  that  anybody  should  flatter  them  with  the 
notion  that  they  are  anything  but  most  inconsistent 
Christians. 

Still  further,  need  I  remind  you  that  if  we  have  found 
anything  in  Jesus  Christ  which  has  been  peace  and  rest 
for  ourselves,  Christ  has  thereby  called  us  to  this  work  ? 
He  has  found  and  saved  us,  not  only  for  our  own  personal 
good.  That,  of  course,  is  the  prime  purpose  of  our  salva- 
tion, but  not  its  exclusive  purpose.  He  has  saved  us  too, 
in  order  that  the  Word  may  be  spread  through  us  to  those 
beyond.  *'  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  like  leaven,  which 
a  woman  took  and  hid  in  three  measures  of  meal  until 
the  whole  was  leavened,"  and  every  little  bit  of  the 
dough,  as  it  received  into  itself  the  leaven,  and  was 
transformed,  became  a  medium  for  transmitting  the 
transformation  to  the  next  particle  beyond  it  and  so  the 
whole  was  at  last  permeated  by  the  power.  We  get  the 
grace  for  ourselves  that  we  may  pass  it  on  ;  and  as  the 
Apostle  says  :  "  God  hath  shined  into  our  hearts  that  we 
might  give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God 
in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ. " 

And  you  can  do  it,  you  Christian  men  and  women, 
every  one  of  you,  and  preach  Him  to  some  body.  The 
possession  of  His  love  gives  the  commission  ;  ay  I  and  it 
gives  the  power.  There  is  nothing  so  mighty  as  the 
confession  of  personal  experience.  Do  not  you  think  that 
when  that  first  of  Christian  converts,  and  first  of  Christian 
preachers  went  to  his  brother,  all  full  of  what  he  had 
discovered,    his   simple    saying,    "  We   have    found  the 


OF  GREAT   CITIES.  119 

Messias,  "  was  a  better  sermon  than  a  far  more  elaborate 
proclamation  would  have  been  ?  My  brother  1  If  you 
have  found  Him,  you  can  say  so  ;  and  if  you  can  say  so, 
and  your  character  and  your  life  confirm  the  words  of 
your  lips,  you  will  have  done  more  to  spread  His  name 
than  much  eloquence  and  many  an  orator.  All  can 
preach,  who  can  say,  "  We  have  found  the  Christ.  " 

The  last  word  I  have  to  say  is  this  :  there  is  no  other 
body  that  can  do  it  but  you.  They  say  :  — "  What  an 
awful  thing  it  is  that  there  are  no  churches  or  chapels  in 
these  outcast  districts  I "  If  there  were  they  would  be 
what  the  churches  and  chapels  are  now — half  empty. 
Bricks  and  mortar  built  up  into  ecclesiastical  forms  are 
not  the  way  to  evangelise  this  or  any  other  country.  It 
is  a  very  easy  thing  to  build  churches  and  chapels.  It  is 
not  such  an  easy  thing — I  believe  it  is  an  impossible  thing 
(and  that  the  sooner  the  Christian  Church  gives  up  the 
attempt  the  better) — to  get  the  Godless  classes  into  any 
church  or  chapel.  Conducted  on  the  principles  upon 
which  churches  and  chapels  must  needs  at  present  be  con- 
ducted, they  are  for  another  class  altogether  ;  and  we  had 
better  recognise  it,  because  then  we  shall  feel  that  no 
multiplication  of  buildings  like  this  in  which  we  now  are, 
for  instance,  is  any  direct  contribution  to  the  evangelisa- 
tion of  the  waste  spots  of  the  country,  except  in  so  far  as 
from  a  centre  like  this  there  ought  to  go  out  much 
influence  which  will  originate  direct  missionary  action  in 
places  and  fashions  adapted  to  the  outlying  community. 

Professional  work  is  not  what  we  want.  Any  man,  be 
he  minister,  clergyman,  Bible-reader,  city  missionary, 
who  goes  among  our  godless  population  with  the  sus- 
picion of  pay  about  him  is  the  weaker  for  that.  What  is 
needed  besides  is  that  ladies  and  gentlemen  that  are  a  bit 
higher  up  in  the  social  scale  than  these  poor  creatures, 
should  go  to  them  themselves  ;  and  excavate  and  work. 


120  HOW   TO   SWEETEN   THE   LIFE 

Preach,  if  yon  like,  in  the  technical  sense  ;  have  meetings, 
[  suppose,  necessarily  ;  but  the  personal  contact  is  the 
thing,  the  familiar  talk,  the  simple  exhibition  of  a  loving 
Christian  heart.,  and  the  unconventional  proclamation  in 
free  conversation  of  the  broad  message  of  the  love  of  God 
in  Jesus  Christ.  Why,  if  all  the  people  in  this  chapel 
who  can  do  that  would  do  it,  and  keep  on  doing  it,  who 
^-an  tell  what  an  influence  would  come  from  some  hun- 
dreds of  new  workers  for  Christ  ?  And  why  should  the 
existence  of  a  church  in  which  the  workers  are  as 
numerous  as  the  Christians  be  an  Utopian  dream  ?  It  is 
simply  the  dream  that  perhaps  a  church  might  be  con- 
ceived to  exist,  all  the  members  of  which  had  found  out 
their  plainest,  most  imperative  duty,  and  were  really  try- 
ing to  do  it. 

No  carelessness,  no  indolence,  no  plea  of  timidity  or 
business  shift  the  obligation  from  your  shoulders  if  yon 
are  a  Christian.  It  is  your  business,  and  no  paid  agents 
"can  represent  you.  You  cannot  buy  yourselves  substitutes 
in  Christ's  army  as  they  used  to  do  in  the  mititia  by  a 
guinea  subscription.  We  are  thankful  for  the  money, 
because  there  are  kinds  of  work  to  be  done  that  unpaid 
effort  will  not  do.  But  they  ask  for  your  money  ;  Jesus 
Christ  asks  for  yourself,  for  your  work  and  will  not  let 
you  off  as  having  done  your  duty  because  you  have  paid 
your  subscription.  No  doubt  there  are  some  of  you  who, 
from  various  circumstances,  cannot  yourselves  do  work 
amongst  the  masses  of  the  outcast  population.  Well,  but 
you  have  got  people  by  your  side  whom  you  can  help. 
The  question  which  I  wish  to  ask  of  my  Christian 
brethren  and  sisters  this  morning  is  this  :  Is  there  a  man, 
woman,  or  child  living  to  whom  you  ever  spoke  a  word 
about  Jesus  Christ  ?  Is  there  ?  If  not,  do  not  you  think 
it  is  time  that  you  began  ? 

There  are  people  in  your  houses,  people  that  sit  by  yon 


OP   GIIEAT    CITIES.  121 

in  yonr  connting-housc.  en  youi'  college  benches,  who 
work  by  your  side  in  mill  or  factory  or  warehouse,  who 
cross  your  path  in  a  hundred  ways,  and  God  has  given 
them  to  you  that  you  may  bring  them  to  Him.  Do  you 
set  yourself,  dear  brother,  to  work  and  try  to  bring  them. 
Oh  !  if  you  lived  nearer  Jesus  Christ  you  would  catch  the 
sacred  fire  from  Him  ;  and  like  a  bit  of  cold  iron  lying 
beside  a  magnet,  touching  Him,  you  would  yourselves 
become  magnetic  and  draw  men  out  of  their  evil  and  up 
to  God. 

Let  me  commend  to  you  the  old  pattern  :  "  The  priests 
repaired  every  one  over  against  his  house  ; "  and  beseech 
yon  to  take  the  trowel  and  spade,  or  anything  that  comes 
handiest,  and  build  in  the  bit  nearest  yon  some  living 
stones  on  the  true  Foundation. 


THE   TRIFLE   RAYS   WHICH   MAKE   THE 
WHITE   LIGHT   OF   HEAVEiN. 


SERMON  X. 


THE  TRIPLE  RAYS  WHICH  MAKE  THE  WHITE 

LIGHT  OP  HEAVEN. 

'HlB  Berrantfl  shvJl  serre  Him  ;  and  they  shall  see  His  teoe ;  and  HIb  name  shall  be 
In  their  foreheads.*    Ear.  xzii.  3, 4. 

One  may  well  shrink  from  taking  words  like  these  for  a 
text.  Their  lofty  music  will  necessarily  make  all  words 
of  ours  seem  thin  and  poor.  The  great  things  about 
which  they  are  concerned  are  so  high  above  us,  and 
known  to  us  by  so  few  channels  that  usually  he  who  says 
least  speaks  most  wisely  about  them.  And  yet  it  cannot 
be  but  wholesome  if  in  a  reverent  spirit  of  no  vain  curi- 
osity, we  do  try  to  lay  upon  our  hearts  the  impressions  of 
the  great,  though  they  be  dim,  truths  which  gleam  from 
these  words.  I  know  that  to  talk  about  a  future  life  is 
often  a  most  sentimental,  vague,  unpractical  form  of 
religious  contemplation,  but  there  is  no  reason  at  all  why 
it  should  be  so.  I  wish  to  try  now  very  simply  to  bring 
out  the  large  force  and  wonderful  meaning  of  the  words 
which  I  have  ventured  to  read.  They  give  us  three 
elements  of  the  perfect  state  of  man — Service,  Contempla- 
tion, Likeness.    These  three  are  perfect  and  unbroken. 


126  THB  TRIPLE   RAYS   WHICH   MAKE 

I. — The  first  element,  then,  in  the  perfect  state  of  man 
is  perfect  activity  in  the  service  of  God.  Now  the 
words  of  our  text  are  remarkable  in  that  the  two  expres- 
sions for  "  servant "  and  "  serve  "  are  not  related  to  one 
another  in  the  Greek,  as  they  are  in  the  English,  but  are 
two  quite  independent  words  ;  the  former  meaning  liter- 
ally "  a  slave,*'  and  the  latter  being  exclusively  confined 
in  Scripture  to  one  kind  of  service.  It  would  never  be 
employed  for  any  service  that  a  man  did  for  a  man  ;  it  is 
exclusively  a  religious  word,  and  means  only  the  service 
that  men  do  for  God,  whether  in  specific  acts  of  so-called 
worship  or  in  the  wider  worship  of  daily  life.  So  that  if 
we  have  not  here  the  notion  of  priesthood,  we  have  one 
very  closely  approximating  towards  it ;  and  the  represen- 
tation is  that  the  activity  of  the  redeemed  and  perfected 
man,  in  the  highest  ideal  condition  of  humanity,  is  an 
activity  which  is  all  worship,  and  is  directed  to  the 
revealed  God  in  Christ. 

That,  then,  is  the  first  thought  that  we  have  to  look  at. 
Now,  it  seems  to  me  to  be  a  very  touching  confession  of 
the  weariness  and  unsatisfactoriness  of  life  in  general 
that  the  dream  of  the  future  which  has  unquestionably  the 
most  fascination  for  most  men,  is  that  which  speaks  of  it  as 
Rest.  The  religion  which  has  the  largest  number  of  ad- 
herents in  the  world — the  religion  of  the  Buddhists — 
formally  declares  existence  to  be  evil,  and  preaches  as  the 
highest  attainable  good,  something  which  is  scarcely  distin- 
guishable from  annihilation.  And,  even  though  we  do 
not  go  so  far  as  that,  what  a  testimony  it  is  of  burdened 
hearts  and  mournful  lives,  and  work  too  great  for  the 
feeble  limits  of  our  powers,  that  the  most  natural  thought 
of  a  blessed  future  is  as  rest !  It  is  easy  to  laugh  at  people 
for  singing  hymns  about  sitting  upon  green  and  fiowery 
mounts,  and  counting  up  the  labours  of  their  feet :  but 


THE   WHITE    LIGHT  OF  HEAVEN.  127 

oh  I  it  is  a  tragical  thought  that  whatsoever  shape  a  life  has 
taken,  howsoever  full  of  joy  and  sunshine  and  brightness 
it  may  be,  deep  down  in  the  man  there  is  such  an  expe- 
rience as  that  the  one  thing  he  wants  is  repose  and  to  get 
rid  of  all  the  trouble  and  toil. 

Now,  this  representation  of  my  text  is  by  no  means  con- 
tradictory, but  it  is  complementary,  of  that  other  one. 
The  deepest  rest  and  the  highest  activity  coincide.  They 
do  so  in  God  Who  "  worketh  hitherto "  in  undisturbed 
tranquility  ;  they  may  do  so  in  ns.  The  wheel  that  goes 
round  in  swiftest  rotation  seems  to  be  standing  still. 
Work  at  its  intensest,  which  is  pleasurable  work,  and 
level  to  the  capacity  of  the  doer,  is  the  truest  form  of  rest. 
In  vacuity  there  are  stings  and  torment ;  it  is  only  in 
joyous  activity  which  is  not  pushed  to  the  extent  of 
strain  and  unwelcome  effort  that  the  true  rest  of  man  is  to 
be  found.  And  the  two  verses  in  this  Book  of  Revelation 
about  this  matter,  which  look  at  first  sight  to  be  opposed 
to  each  other,  are  like  the  two  sides  of  a  sphere,  which  unite 
and  make  the  perfect  whole.  "They  rest  from  their 
labours."     "  They  rest  not,  day  nor  night." 

From  their  labours — yes  ;  from  toil  disproportioned  to 
faculty — yes  I  from  unwelcome  work — yes  I  from  distrac- 
tion and  sorrow — yes  I  But  from  glad  praise  and  vigorous 
service — never  I  day  nor  night.  And  so  with  the  full  ap- 
prehension of  the  sweetness  and  blessedness  of  the  tranquil 
Heaven,  we  say  :  It  is  found  only  there,  where  His  ser- 
vants serve  Him.  Thus  the  first  thought  that  is  presented 
here  is  that  of  an  activity  delivered  from  all  that  makes 
toil  on  earth  burdensome  and  unwelcome  ;  and  which, 
therefore,  is  coincident  with  the  deepest  and  most  perfect 
repose. 

It  may  seem  strange  to  think  of  a  blessed  life  which 
has  no  effort  in  it,  for  effort  is  the  very  salt  and  spice  of 
life  here  below,  and  one  can  scarcely  fancy  the  perfect 


128  THE   TRIPLE    RAYS    VvHiClI   MAKE 

happiness  of  a  spirit  which  never  has  the  glow  of  warmth 
that  comes  from  exercise  in  overcoming  difficulties.  But 
perhaps  effort,  and  antagonism,  and  strain,  and  trial  have 
done  their  work  on  us  when  they  have  moulded  our  char- 
acters, and  when  "school  is  over  we  burn  the  rod";  and 
the  discipline  of  joy  may  evolve  nobler  graces  of  character 
than  ever  the  discipline  of  sorrow  did.  At  all  events,  we 
have  to  think  of  work  which  also  is  repose,  and  of  service 
in  which  is  unbroken  tranquility. 

Then  there  is  further  involved  in  this  first  idea,  the 
notion  of  an  outer  world,  on  which  and  in  which  to  work  ; 
and  also  the  notion  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  in 
w^hich  the  active  spirit  may  abide,  and  through  which  it 
may  work. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  that  they  who  sleep  in  Jesus,  in  the 
period  between  the  shuffling  off  of  this  mortal  coil  and 
the  breaking  of  that  day  when  they  are  raised  again  from 
the  dead,  are  incapable  of  exertion  in  an  outer  sphere. 
Perhaps,  it  may  be,  that  by  reason  of  the  absence  of  that 
glorified  body  of  the  Resurrection,  they  sleep  in  Jesus  in 
the  sense  that  they  couch  at  the  Shepherd's  feet  within 
the  fold  until  the  morning  comes,  when  He  leads  them 
out  to  new  pastures.  It  may  be.  At  all  events,  this  we 
may  be  sure  of,  that  if  it  be  so  they  have  no  desires  in 
advance  of  th#ir  capacities  ;  and  of  this  also  I  think  we 
may  be  sure,  that  whether  they  themselves  can  come  into 
contact  with  an  external  Universe  or  not,  Christ  is  for 
them  in  some  measure  what  the  body  is  to  us  here  now, 
and  the  glorified  body  will  be  hereafter ;  that  being 
absent  from  the  body  they  are  present  with  the  Lord,  and 
that  He  is  as  it  were,  the  Sensorium  by  which  they  are 
brought  into  contact  with  and  have  a  knowledge  of  ex- 
ternal things,  so  that  they  may  rest  and  wait  and  have  no 
worlv  to  do,  and  have  no  effort  to  put  forth,  and  yet  be 
conscious  of  all  that  befalls  the  loved  ones  here  below, 


THE   WHITE   LIGHT  OF   HEAVEN.  129 

may  know  them  in  their  affliction,  and  not  be  untouched 
by  their  tears. 

But  all  that  is  a  dim  region  into  which  we  have  not 
any  need  to  look.  What  I  emphasize  is,  the  service  of 
Heaven  means  rest,  and  the  service  of  Heaven  means  an 
outer  universe  on  which,  and  a  true  bodily  frame  with 
which,  to  do  the  work  which  is  delight. 

The  next  point  is  this  :  such  service  must  be  in  a  far 
higher  sphere  and  a  far  nobler  fashion  than  the  service  of 
earth.  That  is  in  accordance  with  the  analogy  of  the 
Divine  dealings.  God  rewards  work  with  more  work. 
The  powers  that  are  trained  and  exercised  and  proved  in 
a  narrower  region  are  lifted  to  the  higher.  As  some  poor 
peasant-girl,  for  instance,  whose  rich  voice  has  risen  up 
in  the  harvest-field  only  for  her  own  delight  and  that  of  a 
handful  of  listeners,  heard  by  some  one  who  detects  its 
sweetness,  may  be  carried  away  to  some  great  city,  and 
charm  kings  with  her  tones,  so  the  service  done  in  some 
little  corner  of  this  remote  rural  province  of  God's  uni- 
verse, apprehended  by  Him,  shall  be  rewarded  with  a 
wider  platform,  and  a  nobler  area  for  work.  "  Thou  hast 
been  faithful  in  a  few  things,  I  will  make  thee  ruler  over 
many  things."  God  sends  forth  His  children  to  work  as 
apprentices  here,  and  when  they  are  "  out  of  their  time,  " 
and  have  "  got  a  trade, "  He  calls  them  home,  not  to  let 
their  faculties  rest  unused,  but  to  practice  on  a  larger 
theatre  what  they  have  learned  on  earth. 

One  more  point  must  be  noticed,  viz.,  that  the  highest 
type  of  Heaven's  service  must  be  service  for  other  people. 
The  law  for  Heaven  can  surely  not  be  more  selfish  than 
the  law  for  earth,  and  that  is,  "  He  that  is  chief  est  amongst 
you  let  him  be  your  servant."  The  law  for  the  perfect 
man  can  surely  not  be  different  from  the  law  for  the 
Master,  and  the  law  for  Him  is,  "  Even  Christ  pleased 
not  Himself."    The  perfection  of  the  child  can  surely  noi 

K 


la  I  THE  TRIPLE  RAYS  WHICH  MAKE 

be  iiff  erent  from  the  perfection  of  the  Father,  and  the  perf  ec- 
tio.a  of  the  Father  is  :  "  He  maketh  His  sun  to  *  shine,'  and 
Hiti  blessings  to  come — on  the  unthankful  and  on  the  good." 

^o  then  the  highest  service  for  man  is  the  service  of 
others  ; — how,  where,  or  whom,  we  cannot  tell.  We  too 
ma/  be  "ministering  spirits,  sent  forth  to  minister" 
(Hcb.  i.  14),  but  at  all  events  not  on  ourselves  can  our 
activities  centre  ;  and  not  in  self-culture  can  be  the  highest 
form  of  our  service  to  God. 

The  last  point  about  this  first  matter  is  simply  this — 
that  this  highest  form  of  human  activity  is  all  to  be 
worship  ;  all  to  be  done  in  reference  io  Him  ;  all  to  be 
done  in  suomission  to  Him.  The  will  of  the  man  in  His 
work  is  to  be  so  conformed  to  the  will  of  God  as 
that,  whatsoever  the  hand  on  the  great  dial  points  to, 
that  the  hand  on  the  little  dial  shall  point  to  also. 
Obedience  is  joy  and  rest.  To  know  and  to  do  His  will 
is  Heaven.  It  is  Heaven  on  earth  in  so  far  as  we  partially 
attain  to  it,  and  when  with  enlarged  powers  and  all  im- 
perfections removed,  and  in  a  higher  sphere,  and  without 
interruptions  we  do  His  commandments,  hearkening  to 
the  voice  of  His  word,  then  the  perfect  state  will  have 
come.  Then  shall  we  enter  into  the  liberty  of  the  glory 
of  the  childi-en  of  God,  when,  as  His  slaves,  we  serve  Him 
in  the  unwearied  activities  done  for  Him,  which  make 
the  worship  of  Heaven. 

II. — Next,  look  at  the  second  of  the  elements  here  : — 
"  They  shall  see  His  face."  Now  that  expression  "  seeing 
the  face  of  God  "  in  Scripture  seems  to  me  to  be  employed 
in  two  somewhat  different  ways,  according  to  one  of 
which  the  possibility  of  seeing  the  face  is  affirmed,  and 
according  to  the  other  of  which  it  is  denied. 

The  one  may  be  illustrated  by  the  Divine  word  to 
Moses  : — "  Thou  canst  not  see  My  face.  There  shall  no 
man  see  Me  and  live."      The  other  may  be  illustrated  by 


THE    WHITE  LIGHT   OF   HEAVEN.  13X 

the  aspiration  and  the  confidence  of  one  of  the  psalms : 
"  As  for  me,  I  shall  behold  Thy  face  in  righteousness." 

A  similar  antithesis,  which  is  apparently  a  contradiction, 
may  be  found  in  setting  side  by  side  the  words  of  our 
Savionr  : — "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall 
see  God,"  with  the  words  of  the  Evangelist ;  "  No  man 
hath  seen  God  at  any  time."  I  do  not  think  that  the 
explanation  is  to  be  found  altogether  in  pointing  to  the 
difference  between  present  and  possible  future  vision, 
but  rather  I  think  the  Bible  teaches  what  reason  would 
also  teach  : — that  no  corporeal  vision  of  God  is  ever  pos- 
sible ;  still  further,  that  no  complete  comprehension  and 
knowledge  of  Him  is  ever  possible,  and,  as  I  think  further, 
that  no  direct  knowledge  of,  or  contact  with,  God  in 
Himself  is  possible  for  finite  man,  either  here  or  yonder. 
And  the  other  side  lies  in  such  words  as  these,  which  I 
have  already  quoted  :  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for 
they  shall  see  God."  "  As  through  a  glass  darkly,  but  then 
face  to  face."  Where  is  the  key  to  the  apparent  contradic- 
tion ?  Here,  I  think ;  Jesus  Christ  is  the  manifest  God, 
in  Him  only  do  men  draw  near  to  the  hidden  Deity,  the  King 
Invisible,  Who  dwelleth  in  the  light  that  is  inaccessible. 

Here  on  earth  we  see  by  faith,  and  yonder  there  will  be  a 
vision,  different  in  kind,  most  real,  most  immediate  and 
direct,  not  of  the  hidden  Godhood  in  itself,  but  of  the 
revealed  Godhood  manifest  in  Jesus  Christ,  Whom  in  His 
glorified  corporeal  Manhood  we  shall  perceive,  with  the 
organs  of  our  glorified  body.  Whom,  in  His  Divine  beauty 
we  shall  know  and  love  with  heart  and  mind,  in  know- 
ledge direct,  immediate,  far  surpassing  in  degree,  and 
different  in  kind  from,  the  knowledge  of  faith  which  we 
have  of  Him  here  below.  But  the  infinite  Godhood  that 
lies  behind  all  revelations  of  Deity  shall  remain  as  it  hath 
been  through  them  all — the  King  invisible.  Whom  no  man 
hath  seen  or  can  see.     They  shall  see  His  face  in  so  far 

iL  2 


132  THE  TRIPLE   RAYS   WHICH   MA  KB 

as  they  shall  hold  commnnion  with  and  through  iheii 
glorified  body  have  the  direct  knowledge  of  Christ  tht 
revealed  Deity. 

'Uliether  there  be  anything  more,  I  know  not ;  I  thini 
there  is  not ;  but  this  I  am  stire  of,  that  the  law  for  HeaveL 
and  the  law  for  earth  alike  are,  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me 
hath  seen  the  Father.  " 

But  there  is  another  point  I  would  touch  upon  in  refer- 
ence to  this  second  thought  of  our  text — viz,  its  connection 
\^ith  the  previous  representation,  "  They  shall  serve 
Him, " — that  is  work  in  an  outer  sphere  ;  "  they  shall  see 
His  face, " — ^that  is  contemplation.  These  two,  the  life  of 
work  and  the  life  of  devout  commnnion — the  Martha  and 
the  Mary  of  the  Christian  experience — are  antagonistic 
here  below,  and  it  is  hard  to  reconcile  their  conflicting, 
fluctuating  claims  and  to  know  how  much  to  give  to  the 
inward  life  of  gazing  upon  Christ,  and  how  much  to  the 
outward  life  of  serving  Him.  But  says  my  text,  the  two 
shiUl  be  blended  together.  •'  His  servants  shall  serve 
Him,"  nor  in  all  their  activity  shall  they  lose  the  vision  of 
His  face.  His  servants  "  shall  see  His  face  ; "  nor  in  all 
the  still  blessedness  of  their  gaze  upon  Him  shall  they 
slack  the  diligence  of  the  unwearied  hands,  or  the  speed 
of  the  willing  feet.  The  Rabbis  taught  that  there  were 
angels  who  serve,  and  angels  who  praise,  but  the  two 
classes  meet  in  the  perfected  man,  whose  services  shall  be 
praise,  whose  praise  shall  be  service.  They  go  forth  to  do 
His  will,  yet  are  ever  in  the  House  of  the  Lord.  They 
work  and  gaze  ;  they  gaze  and  work.  Resting  they  serve, 
and  serving  they  rest  ;  perpetual  activity  and  perpetual 
vision  are  theirs.     *'  They  serve  Him,  and  see  His  face.  *' 

III. — The  last  element  is  "His  name  shall  be  in  their 
forehead."  That  is,  as  I  take  it — a  mainfest  likeness  to 
the  Lord  Whom  they  serve  is  the  highest  element  in  the 
perfect  stat«  of  redeemed  men.      We  hear  a  good  deal  in 


THE   WHITE   LIGHT   OP   HEAVEN.  133 

this  Book  of  the  Revelation  about  writing  the  names  and 
numbers  of  persons  and  of  powers  upon  men's  faces  and 
foreheads  ;  as  for  instance,  you  remember  we  read  about 
the  "number  of  the  beast"  written  upon  his  worshippers, 
and  about  "the  name  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  the  name  of 
my  God"  bein?  wTitten  as  a  special  reward,  "  upon  him  that 
overcomes.  "  The  metaphor,  as  I  suppose  is  taken  from  the 
old  cruel  practice  of  branding  a  slave  with  the  name  of 
his  master.  And  so  the  primary  idea  of  this  expression  : "  His 
slaves  shall  bear  His  name  upon  their  foreheads,"  is  that  their 
ownership  shall  be  conspicuously  visible  to  all  that  look. 

But  there  is  more  than  that  in  it.  How  is  the  o\^Tier- 
ship  to  be  made  visible  ?  By  His  name  being  on  their 
foreheads.  What  is  "His  name  "  ?  Universally  in  Scrip- 
ture "  His  name "  is  His  revealed  character,  and  so  we 
come  to  this  :  the  perfect  men  shall  be  known  to  belong 
to  God  in  Christ,  because  they  are  like  Him.  The 
ownership  shall  be  proved  by  the  likeness,  and  that 
likeness  shall  no  longer  be  hidden  in  their  hearts,  no 
longer  be  difficult  to  make  out,  so  blurred  and  obliterated 
the  letters  of  the  name,  by  the  imperfections  of  their  lives 
and  their  selfishness  and  sin  ;  but  it  shall  flame  in  their 
foreheads,  plain  as  the  inscription  on  the  high  priest's 
mitre  that  declared  him  to  be  consecrated  to  the  Lord. 

And  so  that  lovely  and  blessed  thought  is  here  of  % 
perfect  likeness  in  moral  character,  at  all  events,  and  a 
wonderful  approximation  and  resemblance  in  other 
elements  of  human  nature  to  the  glorified  humanity  of  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord,  which  shall  be  the  token  that  we  are  His. 

Oh  !  what  a  contrast  to  the  partial  ownership,  proved  to 
be  partial  by  our  partial  resemblance  here  on  earth  !  "We  say, 
as  Christian  men  and  women,  that  we  bear  His  name.  Is 
it  written  so  that  men  can  read  it,  or  is  it  like  the  name 
of  some  person  traced  in  letters  of  gas  jets  over  a  shop- 
front — half  blown  out  by  every  gust  of  wind  that  comes  ? 


134  THE  TRIPLE  RAYS. 

Is  that  the  way  in  which  His  name  is  written  on  yonr 
heart  and  character.  My  brother  I  a  possibility  great  and 
blessed  opens  before  us  of  a  nobler  union  with  Him,  a  closer 
approximation,  a  clearer  vision,  a  perfecter  resemblance. 
"  We  shall  be  like  Him,  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is  I  " 

One  last  word.  These  three  elements,  service,  contem- 
plation, likeness  ;  these  three  are  not  different  in  kind 
from  the  elements  of  a  Christian  man's  life  here.  You 
can  enjoy  them  all  sitting  in  these  pews  ;  in  the  bustle 
and  the  hurry  of  your  daily  life,  you  can  have  every  one 
of  them.  If  you  do  not  enjoy  them  here  you  will  never 
have  them  yonder.  If  you  have  never  served  anybody 
but  yourself  how  shall  death  make  you  His  servant  ?  If 
all  the  days  of  your  life  you  have  turned  away  your  ear 
when  He  has  been  saying  to  you  :  "  Seek  ye  my  face,  " 
what  reason  is  there  to  expect  that  when  death's  hammer 
smashes  the  glass  through  which  you  have  seen  darkly, 
"  the  steady  whole  of  that  awful  face  "  will  be  a  pleasant 
sight  to  you  ?  If  all  your  life  you  have  been  trying,  as 
some  of  you  men  and  women,  old  and  young,  have 
been  trying,  and  are  trying  now,  to  engrave  the  name  of 
the  beast  upon  your  foreheads,  what  reason  have  you  to 
expect  that  when  you  pass  out  of  this  life  the  foul  signs 
shall  disappear  in  a  moment,  and  you  will  bear  in  your 
brow  "  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus "  in  their  stead  ? 
No  I  No  !  These  things  do  not  happen  ;  you  have  got 
to  begin  here  as  you  mean  to  end  yonder.  Trust  Him 
here,  and  you  will  see  Him  there.  Serve  Him  here,  and 
you  will  serve  Him  yonder.  Write  His  new  Name  upon 
your  heart,  and  when  you  pass  from  the  imperfections  of 
life  you  will  bear  His  Name  on  your  foreheads. 

And  if  you  do  not — I  lay  this  upon  the  consciences  of  yon 
all, — if  you  do  not  you  will  see  Christ; — and  you  will  not 
like  it !  And  you  will  bear,  not  the  Image  of  the  Heaven- 
ly, which  is  life,  but  the  image  of  the  earthy,  which  is 
death  and  hell  I 


THE  SECEET  OF  GLADNESj 


8ERM0N  XL 


THE  SECRET  OP  GLADNESS. 

"Anil  jes^it  said  unto  them.  Can  the  children  of  the  brideohamber  moom  m  k>m 
U  the  bndfcrt .  com  ia  with  them  ?  "    Mark  ii.  19. 

This  is  part  of  our  Lord's  answer  to  the  question  put 
by  John's  disciples  as  to  the  reason  for  the  omission  of 
the  practice  of  tasting  by  his  followers.      The  answer  is 
very  simple.  It  is — "  My  disciples  do  not  fast  because  they 
are   not  sad."     And  the  principle  which  underlies  the 
answer  is  a  very  important  one.     It  is  this :  that  all  out- 
ward forms  of  religion,  appointed  by  man,  ought  only  to 
be  observed  when  they  correspond  to  the  feeling  and  dis- 
position of  the  worshipper.     That  principle  cuts  up  all 
religious  formalism  by  the  very  roots.  The  Pharisee  said  : 
— "  Fasting  is  a  good  thing  in  itself,  and  meritorious  in 
the  sight  of  God."    The  modern  Pharisee  says  the  same 
about  many  externals  of  ritual  and  worship,  Jesus  Christ 
Bays  "  No  I    The  thing  has  no  value  except  as  an  expres- 
sion of  the  feeling  of  the  doer.'*     Our  Lord  did  not  object 
to  fasting ;  He  expressly  approved  of  it  as  a  means  of 
spiritual  power.     But  he  did  object  to  the  formal  use  of  it 
or  of  any  outward  form.    The  formalist's  form,  whether  it 
be  the  elaborate  ritual  of  the  Catholic  Church,  or  the  barest 


138  THE  SECRET  OF  GLADNESS. 

Nonconformist  service,  or  the  silence  of  a  Friends'  meeting- 
nouse,  is  rigid,  unbending  and  cold,  like  an  iron  rod.  The 
true  Christian  form  is  elastic,  like  the  stem  of  a  palm  tree, 
which  curves  and  sways  and  yields  to  the  wind,  and  has 
the  sap  of  life  in  it.  If  any  man  is  sad,  let  him  fast ;  "  if 
any  man  is  merry  let  him  sing  psalms. "  Let  his  ritual 
correspond  to  his  spiritual  emotion  and  conviction. 

But  the  point  which  I  wish  to  consider  now  is  not  so 
much  this,  as  the  representation  that  is  given  here  of  the 
reason  why  fasting  was  incongruous  with  the  condition  and 
disposition  of  the  disciples.  Jesus  says  : — "  We  are  more 
like  a  wedding-party  than  anything  else.  Can  the  child- 
ren of  the  bridechamber  mourn  as  long  as  the  bridegroom 
is  with  them  ? " 

The  "  children  of  the  bridechamber  "  is  but  another  name 
for  those  who  were  called  the  "  friends  "  or  companions 
"  of  the  bridegroom. "  According  to  the  Jewish  wedding 
ceremonial  it  was  their  business  to  conduct  the  bride  to 
the  home  of  her  husband,  and  there  to  spend  seven  days 
in  festivity  and  rejoicing,  which  were  to  be  so  entirely 
devoted  to  mirth  and  feasting  that  the  companions  of  the 
bridegroom  were  by  the  Talmudic  ritual  absolved  even 
from  prayer  and  from  worship,  and  had  for  their  one  duty 
to  rejoice. 

And  that  is  the  picture  that  Christ  holds  up  before  the 
disciples  of  the  ascetic  John  as  the  representation  of  what 
He  and  His  friends  were  most  truly  like.  Very  unlike  our 
ordinary  notion  of  Christ  and  His  disciples  as  they  walked 
the  earth  !  The  presence  of  the  Bridegroom  made  them 
glad  with  a  strange  gladness,  which  shook  off  sorrow  as 
the  down  on  a  sea-bird's  breast  shakes  off  moisture,  and 
leaves  it  warm  and  dry,  though  it  floats  amidst  boundless 
seas.  I  wish  to-day  to  meditate  with  you  on  this  secret 
of  imperviousness  to  sorrow  arising  from  the  felt  presence 
of  the  Christ. 


THE  SECRBT  OF  GLADNESS.  139 

There  are  three  subjects  for  consideration  arising  from 
the  words  of  my  text :  The  Bridegi'oom— the  presence  of 
the  Bridegroom— the  joy  of  the  Bridegroom's  presence. 

I.— Now  with  regard  to  the  first,  a  very  few  words  will 
suffice.  The  first  thing  that  strikes  me  is  the  singular 
appropriateness,  and  the  delicate  pathetic  beauty  in  the 
employment  of  this  name  by  Christ  in  the  existing  cir- 
cumstances. Who  was  it  that  had  first  said :  "  He  that 
hath  the  bride  is  the  bridegroom,  but  the  friend  of  the 
bridegroom  that  standeth  by  and  heareth  him,  rejoiceth 
greatly  because  of  the  bridegroom's  voice.  This  my  joy 
therefore  is  fulfilled  ?  "  Why,  it  was  the  master  of  these 
very  men  who  were  asking  the  question.  John's  disciplea 
came  and  said  :  "  Why  do  not  your  disciples  fast  ?  "  And 
our  Lord  reminded  them  of  their  own  teacher's  words, 
when  he  said,  "  The  friend  of  the  bridegroom  can  only  be 
glad."  And  so  He  would  say  to  them,  "  In  your  master's 
own  conception  of  what  I  am,  and  of  the  joy  that  comes 
from  my  presence,  you  have  an  answer  to  your  question. 
He  might  have  taught  you  who  I  am,  and  why  it  is  that 
the  men  that  stand  around  Me  are  glad." 

But  this  is  not  all.  We  cannot  but  connect  this  name 
with  a  whole  circle  of  ideas  found  in  the  Old  Testament, 
especially  with  that  most  familiar  and  almost  stereotyped 
figure  which  represents  the  union  between  Israel  and 
Jehovah,  under  the  emblem  of  the  marriage  bond.  The 
Lord  is  the  husband  ;  and  the  nation  whom  He  has  loved 
and  redeemed  and  chosen  for  Himself,  is  the  wife  ; 
unfaithful  and  forgetful,  often  requiting  love  with  in- 
difference, and  protection  with  unthankfulness,  and  need- 
ing to  be  put  away,  and  debarred  of  the  society  of  the 
husband  that  still  yearns  for  her  ;  but  a  wife  still,  and  in 
the  new  time  to  be  joined  to  Him  by  a  bond  that  shall 
never  be  broken  and  a  better  covenant. 

And  so  Christ  lays  His  hand  upon  all  that  old  history 


140  THE  SECRET  OP   GLADNESS. 

and  says  :  "  It  is  fulfilled  here  in  Me."  A  familiar  note 
in  Old  Testament  ]^.lessianic  prophecy  too  is  caught  and 
echoed  here,  especially  that  grand  marriage  ode  of  the 
forty-fifth  Psalm,  in  which  he  must  be  a  very  prosaic  or 
very  deeply  prejudiced  reader  who  hears  nothing  more 
than  the  shrill  wedding  greetings  at  the  marriage  of  some 
Jewish  king  with  a  foreign  princess.  Its  bounding  hopes 
and  its  magnificent  sweep  of  vision  are  a  world  too  wide 
for  such  interpretation.  The  Bridegroom  of  that  psalm  is 
the  Messiah,  and  the  Bride  is  the  Church. 

I  need  only  refer  in  a  sentence  to  what  this  indicates 
of  Christ's  self-consciousness.  What  must  He,  w^ho  takes 
this  name  as  His  own,  have  thought  Himself  to  be  to  the 
world,  and  the  world  to  Him  ?  He  steps  into  the  place  of 
the  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  claims  as  His  own 
all  these  great  and  wonderful  prophecies.  He  promises 
love,  protection,  communion,  the  deepest,  most  mystical 
union  of  spirit  and  heart  with  Himself  ;  and  He  claims 
quiet,  restful  confidence  in  His  love,  absolute,  loving 
obedience  to  His  authority,  reliance  upon  His  strong  hand 
and  loving  heart,  and  faithful  cleaving  to  Him.  The 
Bridegroom  of  humanity,  the  Husband  of  the  world,  if  it 
will  only  turn  to  Him,  is  Christ  Himself. 

II. — But  a  word  as  to  the  presence  of  the  Bridegroom. 
It  might  seem  as  if  this  text  condemned  us  who  love  an 
unseen  and  absent  Lord  to  exclusion  from  the  joy  which  is 
made  to  depend  on  His  presence.  Are  we  in  the  dreary 
period  when  "  the  bridegroom  is  taken  away  "  and  fasting 
appropriate  ?  " 

Surely  not.  The  time  of  mourning  for  an  absent  Christ 
was  only  three  days  ;  the  law  for  the  years  of  the  Church's 
history  between  the  moment  when  the  uplifted  eyes  of  the 
gazers  lost  Him  in  the  symbolic  cloud  and  the  moment 
when  He  shall  come  again  is,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always.*' 
The  absent  Christ  is  the  present  Christ.     He  is  really  with 


THE  8B0RET  OF  GLADNESS.  141 

as,  not  as  the  memory  or  the  influence  of  the  example  of 
the  dead  may  be  said  to  remain,  not  as  the  spirit  of  a  teacher 
may  be  said  to  abide  with  his  school  of  followers.  We 
say  that  Christ  has  gone  up  <m  high  and  sits  on  the  right 
hand  of  God.  The  right  hand  of  God  is  His  active  power. 
Where  is  "the  right  hand  of  God  ?  "  It  is  wherever  His 
divine  energy  works.  He  that  sits  at  the  right  hand  of 
God  is  thereby  declared  to  be  wherever  the  Divine  energy 
is  in  operation,  and  to  be  Himself  the  wielder  of  that 
Divine  Power.  I  believe  in  a  local  abode  of  the  glorified 
human  body  of  Jesus  Christ  now,  but  I  believe  likewise 
that  all  through  God's  Universe,  and  eminently  in  this 
world,  which  He  has  redeemed,  Christ  is  present  in  His 
consciousness  of  its  circumstances,  and  in  the  activity  of 
His  influence,  and  in  whatsoever  other  incomprehensible 
and  unspeakable  mode  Omnipresence  belongs  to  a  Divine 
Person.  So  that  He  is  with  us  most  really,  though  the 
visible,  bodily  Form  is  no  longer  by  our  sides. 

That  Presence  which  survives,  which  is  true  for  us 
here  to-day,  may  be  a  far  better  and  more  blessed  and  real 
thing  than  the  presence  of  the  mere  bodily  Form  in  which 
He  once  dwelt.  We  may  have  lost  something  by  His  going 
away  in  visible  form  ;  1  doubt  whether  we  have.  We 
have  lost  the  manifestation  of  Him  to  the  sense,  but  we 
have  gained  the  manifestation  of  Him  to  the  spirit.  And 
just  as  the  great  men,  who  are  only  men,  need  to  die  and 
go  away  in  order  to  be  measured  in  their  true  magnitude 
and  understood  in  their  true  glory  ;  and  just  as  when  a 
man  is  in  amongst  the  mountains,  he  cannot  tell  which 
peak  is  the  dominant  one,  but  when  he  gets  away  a  little 
bit  across  the  sea  and  looks  back,  distance  helps  to  measure 
magnitude  and  reveal  the  sovereign  summit  which  towers 
above  all  the  rest,  so  looking  back  across  the  ages  with  the 
foreground  between  us  and  Him  of  the  history  of  the 
Christian    Church   ever  since,   and   noticing   how   other 


142  THE   SECRET  OP  GLADNESS. 

heights  have  sunk  beneath  the  waves  and  have  been 
wrapped  in  clouds,  and  have  disappeared  behind  the 
great  round  of  the  earth,  we  can  tell  how  high  this  One 
is  ;  and  know  better  than  they  knew  Who  it  is  that  moves 
amongst  men  in  the  form  of  a  servant,  even  the  Bride- 
groom of  the  Church  and  of  the  world.  "  It  is  expedient 
for  you  that  I  go  away."  And  Christ  is,  or  ought  to  be 
nearer  to  us  to-day  in  all  that  constitutes  real  nearness,  in 
our  apprehension  of  His  essential  character,  in  our  recep- 
tion of  His  holiest  influences,  than  He  ever  was  to  them 
who  walked  beside  Him  on  the  earth. 

But,  brethren,  that  presence  is  of  no  use  at  all  to  us  unless 
we  daily  try  to  realise  it.  He  was  with  these  men  whether 
they  would  or  no.  Whether  they  thought  about  Him  or 
Jio,  there  He  was  ;  and  just  because  His  presence  did  not 
at  all  depend  upon  their  spiritual  condition,  it  was  a  lower 
kind  of  presence  than  that  which  you  and  I  have  now, 
and  which  depends  for  us  altogether  on  our  realising  it  by 
the  turning  of  our  hearts  to  Him,  and  by  the  daily  con- 
templation of  Him  amidst  all  the  bustle  and  the  struggle. 

Do  you,  as  you  go  about  your  work,  feel  His  nearness 
and  try  to  keep  the  feeling  fresh  and  vivid,  by  occupying 
heart  and  mind  with  Him,  by  referring  everything  to  His 
supreme  control  ?  By  trusting  yourselves  utterly  and 
absolutely  in  His  hand,  and  gathering  round  you,  as  it 
were,  the  sweetness  of  His  love  by  meditation  and  reflec- 
tion, do  you  try  to  make  conscious  to  yourselves  your 
Lord's  presence  with  you  ?  If  you  do,  that  presence  is  to 
you  a  blessed  reality  ;  if  you  do  not,  it  is  a  word  that  means 
nothing  and  is  of  no  help,  no  stimulus,  no  protection,  no 
satisfaction,  no  sweetness  to  you  whatever.  The  children 
of  the  Bridegroom  are  glad  only  when,  and  as,  they  know 
that  the  Bridegroom  is  with  them. 

III. — And  now  a  word,  last  of  all,  about  the  joy  of  the 
Bridegroom's  presence.    What  was  it  that  made  these  rude 


THE  SECRET  OP  GLADNESS.  143 

lives  so  glad  when  Christ  was  with  them ;  filling  them 
with  strange  new  sweetness  and  power  ?  The  charm  of 
personal  character,  the  charm  of  contact  with  one  whose 
lips  were  bringing  to  them  fresh  revelations  of  truth, 
fresh  visions  of  God,  whose  whole  life  was  the  exhibition 
of  a  nature,  beautiful,  and  noble,  and  pure,  and  tender  and 
sweet,  and  loving,  beyond  anything  they  had  ever  seen 
before. 

Ah  !  brethren,  there  is  no  joy  in  the  world  like  that  of 
companionship,  in  the  freedom  of  perfect  love,  with  one 
who  ever  keeps  us  at  our  best,  and  brings  the  treasures  of 
ever  fresh  truth  to  the  mind,  as  well  as  beauty  of  charac- 
ter to  admire  and  imitate.  That  is  one  of  the  greatest  gifts 
that  God  gives,  and  is  a  source  of  the  purest  joy  that  we 
can  have. 

Now  you  may  have  all  that  and  much  more  in  Jesus 
Christ.  He  will  be  with  us  if  we  do  not  drive  Him  away 
from  us,  as  the  source  of  our  purest  joy,  because  He  is 
the  all-sufficient  object  for  our  love. 

Oh  I  you  men  and  women  who  have  been  wearily 
seeking  in  the  world  for  love  that  cannot  change,  for  love 
that  cannot  die  and  leave  you  ;  you  who  have  been  made 
sad  for  life  by  irrevocable  losses,  or  sorrowful  in  the 
midst  of  your  joy  by  the  anticipated  certain  separation 
which  is  to  come,  listen  to  this  One  who  says  to  you  :  "  I 
will  never  leave  thee,  and  My  love  shall  be  round  thee 
for  ever  ; "  and  recognise  this,  that  there  is  a  love  which 
cannot  change,  which  cannot  die,  which  has  no  limits, 
which  never  can  be  cold,  which  never  can  disappoint,  and 
therefore,  in  it,  and  in  His  presence  there  is  unending 
gladness. 

He  is  with  us  as  the  source  of  our  joy,  because  He  is 
the  Lord  of  our  lives,  and  the  absolute  Commander  of  our 
Wills.  To  have  One  present  with  us  Whose  loving  word 
it  is  delight  to  obey,  and  Who  takes  upon  Himself  all  re- 


144  THE  SECRET   OF  GLADNESS. 

sponsibility  for  the  conduct  of  our  lives,  and  leaves  us 
only  the  task  of  doing  what  we  are  bid — that  is  peace,  that 
is  gladness,  of  such  a  kind  as  none  else  in  the  world  gives. 

He  is  with  us  as  the  ground  of  perfect  joy  because  He 
is  the  adequate  object  of  all  our  desires,  and  the  whole  of 
the  faculties  and  powers  of  a  man  will  find  a  field  of  glad 
activity  in  leaning  upon  Him,  and  realising  His  presence. 
Like  the  Apostle  whom  the  old  painters  loved  to  represent 
lying  with  his  happy  head  on  Christ's  heart,  and  his  eyes 
closed  in  a  tranquil  rapture  of  restful  satiifaction,  so  if 
we  have  Him  with  us  and  feel  that  He  is  with  us,  our 
spirits  may  be  still,  and  in  the  great  stillness  of  fruition 
of  all  our  wishes  and  the  fulfilment  of  all  our  needs,  may 
know  a  joy  that  the  world  can  neither  give  nor  take 
away. 

He  is  with  us  as  the  source  of  endless  gladness  in  that 
He  is  the  defence  and  protection  for  our  souls.  And  as 
men  live  in  a  victualled  fortress,  and  care  not  though  the 
whole  surrounding  country  may  be  swept  bare  of  all  pro- 
vision, so  when  we  have  Christ  with  ns  we  may  feel  safe, 
whatsoever  befalls,  and  "  in  the  days  of  famine  we  shall 
be  satisfied." 

He  is  with  us  as  the  source  of  our  perfect  joy  because 
His  presence  is  the  kindling  of  every  hope  that  fills  the 
future  with  light  and  glory.  Dark  or  dim  at  the  best, 
trodden  by  uncertain  shapes,  casting  many  a  deep  shadow 
over  the  present,  that  future  lies,  except  we  see  it  illu- 
mined by  Christ,  and  have  Him  by  our  sides.  But  if  we 
possess  His  companionship,  the  present  is  but  the  parent  of 
a  more  blessed  time  to  come  ;  and  we  can  look  forward 
and  feel  that  nothing  can  touch  our  gladness,  because 
nothing  can  touch  our  union  with  our  Lord. 

So,  dear  brethren,  from  all  these  thoughts  and  a  thous- 
and more  which  I  have  no  time  to  dwell  upon,  comes 
this  one  great  consideration,  that  the  joy  of  the  presence 


THE  ►SECRET  OP  GLADNESS.  145 

of  the  Bridegroom  is  the  victorious  antagonist  of  all 
sorrow  and  mourning.  "  Can  the  children  of  the  bride- 
chamber  mourn  whilst  the  bridegroom  is  with  them  ?  " 
The  answer  sometimes  seems  to  be,  "  Yes,  they  can  ! " 
Our  own  hearts,  with  their  experience  of  tears,  and  losses, 
and  disappointments,  seem  to  say :  "  Mourning  is  possible, 
even  whilst  He  is  here.  We  have  our  own  share, 
and  we  sometimes  think,  more  than  our  share  of  the 
ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to.'* 

And  we  have,  over  and  above  them,  in  the  measure  in 
which  we  are  Christians,  certain  special  sources  of  sorrow 
and  trial,  peculiar  to  ourselves  alone  ;  and  the  deeper  and 
truer  our  Christianity  the  more  of  these  shall  we  have. 
But  notwithstanding  all  that,  what  will  the  felt  presence  of 
the  Bridegroom  do  for  these  griefs  that  will  come  ? 
Well,  it  will  limit  them  for  one  thing  ;  it  will  prevent 
them  from  absorbing  the  whole  of  our  nature.  There 
will  always  be  a  Goshen  in  which  there  is  light  in  the 
dw^elling,  however  murky  may  be  the  darkness  that  wraps 
the  land.  There  will  always  be  a  little  bit  of  soil  above 
the  surface,  however  weltering  and  wide  may  be  the  inun- 
dation that  drowns  onr  world.  There  will  always  be  a  dry 
and  warm  place  in  the  midst  of  the  winter,  a  kind  of 
greenhouse  into  which  we  may  get  from  out  of  the  tem- 
pest and  the  fog.  The  joy  of  the  Bridegroom's  presence 
will  last  through  the  sorrow,  like  a  spring  of  fresh  water 
welling  up  in  the  midst  of  the  sea.  We  may  have  the  salt 
and  the  sweet  waters  mingling  in  our  lives,  not  sent 
forth  by  one  fountain,  but  flowing  in  one  channel. 

Our  joy  will  sometimes  be  made  sweeter  and  more  won- 
derful by  the  very  presence  of  the  mourning  and  the 
grief.  Just  as  the  pillar  of  cloud,  that  glided  before  the 
Israelites  through  the  wilderness,  glow^ed  into  a  pillar  of 
fire  as  the  darkness  deepened,  so,  as  the  outlook  around 
becomes  less  and  less  cheery  and  bright,  and  the   night 

L 


146  THE  SECRET  OP  GLADNESS. 

falls  thicker  and  thicker,  what  seemed  to  be  but  a  thin 
grey  wavering  column  in  the  blaze  of  the  sunlight  will 
gather  warmth  and  brightness  at  the  heart  of  it  when  the 
midnight  comes. 

You  cannot  see  the  stars  at  twelve  o'clock  in  the  day  ; 
you  have  to  watch  for  the  dark  hours  ere  heaven  is  filled 
with  glory.  And  so  sorrow  is  often  the  occasion  for  the 
full  revelation  of  the  joy  of  Christ's  presence. 

Why  have  so  many  Christian  men  so  little  joy  in  their 
lives  ?  Because  they  look  for  it  in  all  sorts  of  wrong 
places,  and  seek  to  wring  it  out  of  all  sorts  of  sapless  and 
dry  things.  "  Do  men  gather  grapes  of  thorns  ?  "  If  you 
put  the  berries  of  the  thorn  into  the  winepress,  will  you 
get  -sweet  sap  out  of  them  ?  That  is  what  you  are  doing 
when  you  take  gratified  earthly  affections,  worldly  com- 
petence, fulfilled  ambitions,  and  put  them  into  the  press, 
and  think  that  out  of  these  you  can  squeeze  the  wine  of 
gladness.  No  I  No  I  brethren,  dry  and  sapless  and  juice- 
less  they  all  are.  There  is  one  thing  that  gives  a  man 
worthy,  noble,  eternal  gladness,  and  that  is  the  felt 
presence  of  the  Bridegroom. 

Why  have  so  many  Christians  so  little  joy  in  their  lives  ? 

A  religion  like  that  of  John's  disciples  and  that  of  the 
Pharisees  is  a  poor  affair.  A  religion  of  which  the  main 
features  are  law  and  restriction  and  prohibition,  cannot  be 
joyful.  And  there  are  a  great  many  people  who  call 
themselves  Christians,  and  have  just  got  religion  enough 
to  take  the  edge  off  worldly  pleasures,  and  yet  they  have 
not  got  enough  to  make  fellowship  with  Christ  a  gladness 
for  them. 

There  is  a  cry  amongst  us  for  a  more  cheerful  type  of 
religion.  I  re-echo  the  cry,  but  am  afraid  that  I  do  not 
mean  by  it  quite  the  same  thing  that  some  of  my  friends 
do.  A  more  cheerful  type  of  Christianity  means  to  many 
of  OB  a  type  of  Christianity  that  will  interfere  less  with 


THE   SECRET   OP   GLADNESS.  147 

my  amusements  ;  a  more  indulgent  doctor  that  will  pre- 
scribe a  less  rigid  diet  than  the  old  Puritan  type  used  to 
do.     Well,  perhaps  they  went  too  far  ;   T  do  not  care  to 
deny  that.     But  the  only  cheerful  Christianity  is  a  Chris- 
tianity that  draws  its  gladness  from  deep  personal  ex- 
perience of  communion  with  Jesus  Christ.     There  is  no 
way  of  men  being  religious  and  happy  except  being  pro- 
foundly religious,  and  living  very  near  their  Master,  and 
always  trying  to  cultivate  that  spirit  of  communion  with 
Him  which  shall  surround  them  with  the  sweetness  and 
the  power  of  His  felt  presence.  We  do  not  want  Pharisaic 
fasting,  but  we  do  want  that  the  reason  for  not  fasting 
shall  not  be  that  Christians  like  eating  better,  but  that 
their  religion  must  be  joyful  because  they  have  Christ 
with  them,  and  therefore  cannot  choose  but  sing,  as  a  lark 
cannot  choose  but  cai-ol.     "  Religion  has  no  power  over  us, 
but  as  it  is  our  happiness,"  and  we  shall  never  make  it 
our  happiness,  and  therefore  never  know  its   beneficent 
control,  until  we  lift  it  clean  out  of  the  low  region  of  out- 
ward forms  and  joyless  service,  into  the  blessed  heights 
of  communion  with  Jesus  Christ,  "  whom  having  not  seen 
we  love." 

I  would  that  Christian  people  saw  more  plainly  that  joy 
is  a  duty,  and  that  they  are  bound  to  make  efforts  to  obey 
the  command,  "  Rejoice  in  the  Lord  always,"  no  less  than 
other  precepts.  If  we  abide  in  Christ,  His  joy  will  abide 
in  us,  and  our  joy  will  be  full.  We  shall  have  in  our 
hearts  a  fountain  of  true  joy  which  will  never  be  turbid 
with  earthly  stains,  nor  dried  up  by  heat,  nor  frozen  by 
cold.  If  we  set  the  Lord  always  before  us  our  days  may 
be  at  once  like  the  happy  hours  of  the  children  of  the 
bridechamber,  bright  with  gladness  and  musical  with 
Bong  ;  and  also,  3aved  from  the  enervation  that  sometimes 
comes  from  joy,  because  thay  are  like  the  patient  vigils  of 
the  servants  who  wait  for  the  Lord,  when  He  shall  return 

l2 


148  THE   SECRET   OF  GLADISBSS. 

from  the  wedding.  So  strangely  blended  of  fruition  and 
hope,  of  companionship  and  solitude,  of  feasting  ami 
watching,  is  the  Christian  life  here,  until  the  time  comes 
when  His  friends  go  in  w-ith  the  Bridegroom  to  the 
banquet,  and  drink  for  ever  of  the  new  joy  of  the  king- 
dom. 


THE   LESSON   OF   MEMORY. 


6ERM0N   XIL 


THE  LESSON  OP  MEMORY. 

•*Thoa  Bhalt  remember  all  the  way  which  the  Lord  thy  QoA  led  thee  these  forty 
years  in  the  wilderness,  to  humble  thee,  and  to  prove  thee,  to  know  what  waa  in 
thine  heart  whether  thoa  wouldst  keep  Hid  commaudmeuts  or  no."     Deal.  viii.  2. 

The  strand  of  our  lives  usually  slips  away  smoothly 
enough,  but  days  such  as  this,  the  last  Sunday  in  a  year, 
are  like  the  knots  on  a  sailor's  log,  which,  as  they  pass 
through  his  fingers,  tell  him  how  fast  it  is  being  paid  out 
off  the  reel,  and  how  far  it  has  run. 

They  suggest  a  momentary  consciousness  of  the  swift 
passage  of  life,  and  naturally  lead  us  to  a  glance  back- 
wards and  forwards,  both  of  which  occupations  ought  to 
be  very  good  for  us.  The  dead  flat  upon  which  we  live 
here  may  be  taken  as  an  emblem  of  the  low  present  in 
which  most  of  us  are  content  to  pass  our  lives,  affording 
nowhere  a  distant  view,  and  never  enabling  us  to  see 
more  than  a  street's  length  ahead  of  us.  It  is  a  good  thing 
to  get  up  upon  some  little  elevation  sometimes,  and  take  a 
wider  view,  backAvard  and  forward. 

And  so  this  morning  I  venture  to  let  the  season  preach 
to  us,  and  to  confine  myself  simply  to  suggesting  for  you 
one  or  two  very  plain  and  obvious  thoughts  which  may 
help  to  make  our  retrospect  wise  and  useful.      And  there 


152  THE  LESSON  OP  MEMORY. 

are  two  main  considerations  which  I  wish  to  submit.  The 
first  is — what  we  ought  to  be  chiefly  occupied  with  as  we 
look  back  ;  and  secondly,  what  the  issue  of  such  a  retro- 
spect ought  to  be. 

I. — What  we  should  be  mainly  occupied  with  as  we 
look  back.  Memory,  like  all  other  faculties,  may 
either  help  us  or  hinder  us.  As  is  the  man,  so  will  be 
his  remembrance.  The  tastes  which  rule  his  present  will 
determine  the  things  that  he  likes  best  to  think  about  in 
the  past.  There  are  many  ways  of  going  wrong  in  our 
retrospect.  Some  of  us,  for  instance,  prefer  to  think  with 
pleasure  about  things  that  ought  never  to  have  been  done, 
and  to  give  a  wicked  immortality  to  thoughts  that  ought 
never  to  have  had  a  being.  Some  men's  tastes  and  incli- 
nations are  so  vitiated  and  corrupted  that  they  find  a  joy 
in  living  their  badnesses  over  again.  Some  of  us,  looking 
back  on  the  days  that  are  gone,  select  by  instinctive  pref- 
erence for  remembrance,  the  vanities  and  frivolities  and 
trifles  which  were  the  main  things  in  them  whilst  they 
lasted.  Such  a  use  of  the  great  faculty  of  memory  is  like 
the  folly  of  the  Egyptians  who  embalmed  cats  and  vermin. 
Do  not  let  us  be  of  those,  who  have  in  their  memories 
nothing  but  rubbish,  or  something  worse,  who  let  down 
the  drag-net  into  the  depths  of  the  past  and  bring  it  up  full 
only  of  mud  and  foulnesses,  and  of  ugly  monsters  that 
never  ought  to  have  been  dragged  into  the  daylight. 

Then  there  are  some  of  us  who  abuse  memory  just  as 
much  by  picking  out,  with  perverse  ingenuity,  every 
black  bit  that  lies  in  the  distance  behind  us,  all  the  dis- 
appointments, all  the  losses,  all  the  pains,  all  the  sorrows. 
Some  men  look  back  and  say,  with  Jacob  in  one  of  his 
moods,  "  Few  and  evil  have  been  the  days  of  the  years  of 
my  life  I "  Yes  !  and  the  same  man,  when  he  was  in  a 
better  spirit  said,  and  a  great  deal  more  truly,  "  The  God 
that  fed  me  all  my  life  long,  the  angel  which  redeemed 


THE  LESSON   OF  MEMORY.  153 

me  from  all  evil."  Do  not  paint  like  Rembrandt,  even  if 
you  do  not  paint  like  Turner.  Do  not  dip  your  brush 
only  in  the  blackness,  even  if  you  cannot  always  dip  it  in 
molten  sunshine  ! 

And  there  are  some  of  us  who,  in  like  manner,  spoil  all 
the  good  that  we  could  get  ©ut  of  a  wise  retrospect  by 
only  looking  back  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  feed  a  senti- 
mental melancholy,  which  is,  perhaps,  the  most  profitless 
of  all  the  ways  of  looking  backwards. 

Now  here  are  the  two  points,  in  this  verse  of  my  text, 
which  would  put  all  these  blunders  and  all  others  right, 
telling  us  what  we  should  chiefly  think  about  when  we 
look  back,  and  from  what  point  of  view  the  retrospect  of 
the  past  must  be  taken  in  order  that  it  should  be  salutary. 
"  Thou  shalt  remember  all  the  way  by  which  the  Lord  thy 
God  hath  led  thee. "  Let  memory  work  under  the  distinct 
recognition  of  Divine  guidance  in  every  part  of  the  past. 
That  is  the^^rs^  condition  of  making  the  retrospect  blessed. 
"  To  humble  thee  and  to  prove  thee,  and  to  know  what 
was  in  ihine  heart,  whether  thou  wouldst  keep  His  com- 
mandments or  no."  Let  us  look  back  with  a  clear 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  use  of  life  is  to  test,  and 
reveal,  and  to  make  character.  This  world,  and  all  its  out- 
ward engagements,  duties  and  occupations,  is  but  a 
gcaffolding,  on  which  the  builders  may  stand  to  rear  the 
true  temple,  and  when  the  building  is  reared  you  may  do 
what  you  like  with  the  scaffolding.  So  we  have  to  look 
back  on  life  from  this  point  of  view,  that  its  joys  and  sor- 
rows, its  ups  and  downs,  its  work  and  repose,  all  the 
vicissitudes  and  sometimes  contrariety  of  its  circumstances 
and  conditions,  are  all  for  the  purpose  of  making  us,  and 
of  making  plain  to  ourselves,  what  we  are.  "  To  humble 
thee,"  that  is,  to  knock  the  self-confidence  out  of  us,  and 
to  bring  us  to  say  :—  "  I  am  nothing  and  Thou  art  every- 
thing ;  I  myself  am  a  poor  weak  rag  of  a  thing  that  needs 


154  THE  LESSON  OP  MEMORY. 

Thy  hand  to  stiffen  me,  or  I  shall  not  be  able  to  resist  or 
to  do."  That  is  one  main  lesson  that  life  is  meant  to  teach 
us.  Whoever  has  learnt  to  say  by  reason  of  the  battering 
and  shocks  of  time,  by  reason  of  sorrows  and  failures,  by 
reason  of  joys,  too,  and  fruition, — "  Lord,  I  come  to  Thee 
as  depending  upon  Thee  for  everything,"  has  got  the  su- 
preme good  out  of  life,  and  has  fufilled  the  purpose  of  the 
Father,  who  has  led  us  all  these  years,  to  humble  us  into 
the  w^holesome  diffidence  that  says  :  "  Not  in  myself,  but 
in  Thee  is  all  my  strength  and  my  hope." 

I  need  not  do  more  than  remind  you  of  the  other  cognate 
purposes  which  are  suggested  here.  Life  is  meant,  not 
only  to  bring  us  to  humble  self -distrust,  as  a  step  towards 
devout  dependence  on  God,  but  also  to  reveal  us  to  our- 
selves, for  we  only  know  what  we  are  by  reflecting  on 
what  we  have  done  ;  and  the  only  path  by  which  self- 
knowledge  can  be  attained  is  the  path  of  observant  recol- 
lection of  our  conduct  in  daily  life. 

Another  purpose  for  which  the  whole  panorama  of  life 
is  made  to  pass  before  us,  and  for  which  all  the  gymnastics 
of  life  exercise  us,  is  that  we  may  be  made  submissive  to 
the  great  Will,  and  may  keep  His  commandments. 

These  thoughts  then  should  be  with  us  in  our  retrospect, 
and  our  retrospect  will  be  blessed  : — First,  we  are  to  look 
back  and  see  God's  guidance  everywhere,  and  second,  we 
are  to  judge  of  the  things  that  we  remember  by  their 
tendency  to  make  character,  to  make  us  humble,  to  reveal 
us  to  ourselves,  and  to  knit  us  in  glad  obedience  to  our 
Father  God. 

II. — And  now  turn  to  the  other  consideration  which 
may  help  to  make  remembrance  a  good,  viz,  the  issuea  to 
which  our  retrospect  must  tend,  if  it  is  to  be  anything 
more  than  sentimental  recollection. 

First  let  me  say  : — Remember  and  be  thankful.  If  what 
I  have  been  saying  be  true,  as  to  the  standard  by  which 


THE   LESSON   OP  MEMORY.  155 

events  are  to  be  tried  ;  if  it  be  the  case  that  the  main  fact 
about  things  is  their  power  to  mould  persons  and  to  make 
character,  then  there  follows,  very  plainly  and  clearly,  that 
all  things  that  come  within  the  sweep  of  our  memory  may 
equally  contribute  to  our  highest  good. 

Good  does  not  mean  pleasure.  Bright  being  may  not 
always  be  well  being,  and  the  highest  good  has  a  very 
much  nobler  meaning  than  comfort  and  satisfaction. 
And  so,  realising  the  fact  that  the  best  of  things  is  that 
they  shall  make  us  like  God,  then  we  can  turn  to  the  past 
and  judge  it  wisely,  because  then  we  shall  see  that  all  the 
diversity,  and  even  the  opposition  of  circumstances  and 
events,  may  co-operate  towards  the  same  end.  Suppose 
two  wheels  in  a  great  machine,  one  turns  from  right  to 
left  and  the  other  from  left  to  right,  but  they  fit  into  one 
another,  and  they  both  produce  one  final  result  of  motion. 
So  the  movements  in  my  life  which  I  call  blessings  and 
gladness,  and  the  movements  in  my  life  which  I  call  sor- 
rows and  tortures  ;  these  may  work  into  each  other,  and 
they  will  do  so  if  I  take  hold  of  them  rightly,  and  use 
them  as  they  ought  to  be  used.  They  will  tend  to  the 
highest  good  whether  they  be  light  or  dark  ;  even  as  night 
with  its  darkness  and  its  dews  has  its  ministration  and 
mission  of  mercy  for  the  wearied  eye  no  less  than  day 
with  its  brilliancy  and  sunshine  ;  even  as  the  summer  and 
the  winter  are  equally  needful,  and  equally  good  for  the 
crop.  So  in  our  lives  it  is  good  for  us,  sometimes,  that  we 
be  brought  into  the  dark  places  ;  it  is  good  for  us  some- 
times that  the  leaves  be  stripped  from  the  trees,  and  the 
ground  be  bound  with  frost. 

And  so  for  both  kinds  of  weather,  dear  brethren,  we 
have  to  remember  and  be  thankful.  It  is  a  hard  lesson, 
I  know  for  some  of  us.  There  may  be  some  listening  to 
me  whose  memory  goes  back  to  this  dying  year  as  the 
year  that  has  held  the  sorest  sorrow  of  their  lives  ;  to  whom 


166  THB  LESSON  OP  MEMORY 

it  has  brought  some  loss  that  has  made  earth  dark.  And 
it  seems  hard  to  tell  quivering  lips  to  be  thankful,  and  to 
bid  a  man,  whose  eyes  fill  with  tears,  to  be  grateful,  as  he 
looks  back  on  such  a  past.  But  yet  it  is  true  that  it  is 
good  for  us  to  be  drawn  or  to  be  driven  to  Him  ;  it  is  good 
for  us  to  have  to  tread  even  a  lonely  path  if  it  makes  us 
lean  more  on  the  arm  of  our  Beloved.  It  is  good  for  us 
to  have  places  made  empty  if,  as  in  the  year  when  Israel's 
King  died,  we  shall  thereby  have  our  eyes  purged  to  be- 
hold the  Lord  sitting  on  the  Royal  Seat. 

"Take  it  on  trust  a  little  whil^ 

Thou  soon  shalt  read  the  mystery  rights 
In  the  fall  sunshine  of  His  smile." 

And  for  the  present  let  us  try  to  remember  that  He  dwell- 
eth  in  the  darkness  as  in  the  light,  and  that  we  are  to  be 
thankful  for  the  things  that  help  us  to  be  near  Him,  and 
not  only  for  the  things  that  make  us  outwardly  glad.  So 
I  venture  to  say  even  to  those  of  you  that  may  be  strugg- 
ling with  sad  remembrances,  remember  and  be  thankful. 

I  have  no  doubt  there  are  many  in  this  congregation 
who  look  back,  if  not  upon  a  year  desolated  by  some  blow 
that  never  can  be  repaired,  yet  upon  a  year  in  which  failing 
resources  and  declining  business,  or  diminished  health,  or 
broken  spirits,  or  a  multitude  of  minute  but  most  disturb- 
ing cares  and  sorrows  do  make  it  hard  to  recognise  the 
loving  Hand  in  all  that  comes.  Yet  to  such,  too,  I  would 
say  :  "  All  things  work  together  for  good,"  therefore  all 
things  aie  to  be  embraced  in  the  thankfulness  of  our  re- 
trospect. 

The  second,  and  simple  practical  suggestion  that  I  make 
is  this  :  Rememoer,  and  let  the  memory  lead  to  contrition. 
Perhaps  I  am  speaking  to  some  men  or  women  for  whom 
this  dying  year  holds  the  memory  of  some  great  lapse 
from  goodness  ;  some  young  man  who  for  the  first  time 
has  been  tempted  to  sensuous  sin ;  some  man  who  may 


THE  LESSON   OF   MEMORY.  157 

have  been  led  into  slippery  places  in  regard  of  business 
integrity.  I  draw  a  *'  bow  at  a  venture  "  when  I  speak  of 
such  things — perhaps  somebody  is  listening  to  me  who 
would  give  a  great  deal  if  he  or  she  could  forget  a  certain 
past  moment  of  this  dying  year — which  makes  their  cheeks 
hot  yet  whilst  they  think  of  it.  To  such  I  say  :  Remem- 
ber !  Go  close  into  the  presence  of  the  black  thing,  and  get 
the  consciousness  of  it  driven  into  your  heart ;  for  the 
remembrance  is  the  first  step  to  deliverance  from  the  load, 
and  to  your  passing,  emancipated  from  the  bitterness,  into 
the  year  that  lies  before  you. 

But  even  if  I  have  not  people  here  to  whom  such  re- 
marks would  apply,  let  us  all  summon  up  to  ourselves  the 
memories  of  these  bygone  days.  In  all  the  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  of  them,  my  friend,  how  many  moiiients 
stand  out  distinct  before  you  as  moments  of  high 
communion  with  God  ?  How  many  times  can  you 
remember  of  devout  consecration  to  Him  ?  How  many, 
when — as  the  people  on  the  Riviera  reckon  the  number 
of  days  on  the  season  in  which,  far  across  the  water, 
they  have  seen  Corsica — you  can  remember  this  year 
to  have  beheld,  faint  and  far  away,  "the  mountains 
that  are  round  about "  the  Jerusalem  that  is  above  ? 
How  many  moments  do  you  remember  of  consecration 
and  service,  of  devotion  to  your  God  and  your  fel- 
lows ?  Oh  I  what  a  miserable,  low-lying  stretch  of  God- 
forgetting  monotony  our  life  looks  when  we  are  looking 
back  at  it  in  the  mass.  One  film  of  mist  is  scarcely  visible, 
but  when  you  get  a  mile  of  it  you  can  tell  what  it  is — 
oppressive  darkness.  One  drop  of  muddy  water  does  not 
show  its  pollution,  but  when  you  get  a  pitcherful  of  it 
you  can  see  how  thick  it  is.  And  so  a  day  or  an  hour 
looked  back  upon  may  not  reveal  the  true  godlessness  of 
the  average  life,  but  if  you  will  take  the  twelvemonth  and 
think  about  it,  and  ask  yourselves  a  question  or  two  about 


158  THE  LESSON   OP  MEMORY. 

it,  I  think  yon  will  feel  that  the  only  attitude  for  any  of 
us  in  looking  back  across  a  stretch  of  such  brown  barren 
moorland  is  that  of  penitent  prayer  for  forgiveness  and 
for  cleansing. 

But  I  daresay  that  some  of  you  say  : — "  Oh  I  I  look  back  " 
and  I  do  not  feel  anything  of  that  kind  of  thing  that 
you  describe  ;  I  have  done  my  duty  and  nobody  can 
blame  me.  I  am  quite  comfortable  in  my  retrospect.  Of 
course  there  have  been  imperfections  ;  we  are  all  human, 
and  these  need  not  trouble  a  man."  Let  me  ask  you,  dear 
brother,  one  question  ;  do  you  believe  that  the  law  of  a 
man's  life  is  :  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind  ;  and  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself  .'' "  Do  you  believe  that  that  is  what  you  ought  to 
do  ?  Have  you  done  it  ?  If  you  have  not,  let  me  beseech 
you  not  to  go  out  of  this  year,  across  the  artificial  and 
imaginary  boundary  that  separates  you  from  the  next, 
v/ith  the  old  guilt  upon  your  back,  but  go  to  Jesus  Christ, 
and  ask  Him  to  forgive  you,  and  then  you  may  pass  into 
the  coming  twelvemonth  without  the  intolerable  burden 
of  unremembered,  unconfessed,  and  therefore  unforgiven 
sin. 

The  next  point  that  I  would  suggest  is  this  :  Let  us 
remember  in  order  that  from  the  retrospect  we  may  get 
practical  wisdom.  It  is  astonishing  what  unteachable, 
untameable  creatures  men  are.  They  gain  wisdom  by 
experience  about  all  the  little  matters  of  daily  life,  but 
they  do  not  seem  to  do  so  about  the  higher.  Even  a 
sparrow  gets  to  understand  a  scarecrow  after  a  time  or 
two,  and  any  rat  in  a  hole  will  learn  the  trick  of  a  trap. 
But  you  can  trick  men  over  and  over  again  with  the  same 
inducement,  and,  even  whilst  the  hook  is  sticking  in  their 
jaws,  the  same  bait  will  tempt  them  once  more.  That  is 
very  largely  the  case  because  they  do  not  observe  and 
remember  what  has  happened  to  them  in  bygone  days. 


THE  LESSON   OF  MEMORY.  159 

There  are  two  things  that  any  man,  who  will  bring  his 
reason  and  common  sense  to  bear  upon  the  honest  esti- 
mate and  retrospect  of  the  facts  of  his  life,  may  be  fully 
convinced  of.  These  are,  first,  his  own  weakness.  One 
main  use  of  a  wise  retrospect  is  to  teach  us  where  we  are 
weakest.  What  an  absurd  thing  it  would  be  if  the  in- 
habitants of  a  Dutch  village  were  to  let  the  sea  come  in  at 
the  same  gap  in  the  same  dyke  a  dozen  times  I  What  an 
absurd  thing  it  would  be  if  a  city  were  captured  over  and 
over  again  by  assault  from  the  same  point,  and  did  not 
strengthen  its  defences  there  I  But  that  is  exactly  what 
you  do  ;  and  all  the  while,  if  you  would  only  think  about 
your  own  past  lives  wisely  and  reasonably,  and  like  men 
with  brains  in  your  heads,  you  might  find  out  where  it 
was  that  you  were  most  open  to  assault ;  what  it  was  in  your 
character  that  needed  most  strengthening,  what  it  was 
wherein  the  devil  caught  you  most  quickly,  and  so  build 
yourselves  up  in  the  most  defenceless  points. 

Do  not  look  back  for  sentimental  melancholy ;  do  not 
look  back  with  unavailing  regrets  ;  do  not  look  back  to 
torment  yourselves  with  useless  self -accusation  ;  but  look 
back  to  see  how  good  God  has  been,  and  look  back  to  see 
where  you  are  weak  and  pile  the  wall  higher  there,  and 
80  learn  practical  wisdom  from  retrospect. 

Another  phase  of  practical  wisdom  which  memory 
should  give  is  deliverance  from  the  illusions  of  sense  and 
time.  Remember  how  much  the  world  has  ever  done  for 
you  in  by-gone  days.  Why  should  you  let  it  befool  you 
once  again  ?  If  it  has  proved  itself  a  liar  when  it  has 
tempted  you  with  gilded  offers  that  came  to  nothing,  and 
with  beauty  that  was  no  more  solid  than  the  "  Easter- 
eggs  "  that  you  buy  in  the  shops — painted  sugar  with 
nothing  inside,  why  should  you  believe  it  when  it 
comes  to  you  once  more  ?  Why  not  say  :  "  Ah  !  once  burnt 
twice  shy  I    You  have  tried  that  trick  on  m©  before,  and 


160  THE   LESSON  OP  MEMORY. 

I  have  found  it  out  I  "  Let  the  retrospect  teach  us  how 
hollow  life  is  without  God,  and  let  it  so  draw  us  nearer 
to  Him. 

The  last  thing  that  I  would  say  is :  Let  us  remember 
that  we  may  hope.  It  is  the  prerogative  of  Christian  re- 
membrance, that  it  merges  into  Christian  hope.  The 
forward  look  and  the  backward  look  are  really  but  the 
exercise  of  the  same  faculty  in  two  different  directions. 
Memory  does  not  always  imply  hope,  we  remember  some- 
times because  we  do  not  hope,  and  try  to  gather  round 
ourselves  the  vanished  past  because  we  know  it  never  can 
be  a  present  or  a  future.  But  when  we  are  occupied  with 
an  unchanging  Friend,  whose  love  is  inexhaustible,  and 
whose  arm  is  unwearied,  it  is  good  logic  to  say  ;  "  It  has 
been,  therefore  it  shall  be." 

With  regard  to  this  fleeting  life,  it  is  a  delusion  to  say 
•*  to-morrow  shall  be  as  this  day,  and  much  more  abundant," 
but  with  regard  to  the  life  of  the  soul  that  lives  in  God,  that 
is  true,  and  true  for  ever.  The  past  is  a  specimen  of  the 
future.  The  future  for  the  man  that  lives  in  Christ  is  but 
the  prolongation,  and  the  heightening  into  superlative  ex- 
cellence and  beauty  of  all  that  is  goo^  in  the  past  and  in 
the  present.  As  the  radiance  of  some  rising  sun  may  cast 
its  bright  beams  into  the  opposite  sky,  even  so  the  glowing 
past  behind  us  flings  its  purples  and  its  golds  and  its 
scarlets  on  to  the  else  dim  curtain  of  the  future. 

Remember  that  you  may  hope.  A  paradox,  but  a 
paradox  that  is  a  truth  in  the  case  of  Christians  whose 
memory  is  of  a  God  that  has  loved  and  blessed  them ; 
whose  hope  is  in  a  God  that  changes  never  ;  whose 
memory  is  charged  with  every  good  and  perfect  gift  that 
came  down  from  the  Father  of  Lights,  whose  hope  is  in 
that  same  Father,  "  with  whom  is  no  variableness,  neither 
shadow  of  turning."  So  on  every  stone  of  remembrance, 
every  Ebenezer  on  which  is  graved  :  "  Hitherto  hath  the 


THE   LESSON   OP  MEMORY.  161 

Lord  helped  us,"  we  can  mount  a  telescope — if  I  may  so 
Bay — that  will  look  into  the  furthest  glories  of  the  heavens, 
and  be  sure  that  the  past  will  be  magnified  and  perpetu- 
ated in  the  future.  Our  prayer  may  legitimately  be  : 
"  Thon  hast  been  my  help,  leave  me  not,  neither  forsake 
me  I  "  And  His  answer  will  be  :  "I  will  leave  thee  not 
until  I  have  done  that  which  I  have  spokei.  to  thee  of/' 
Remember  that  yon  may  hope,  and  hope  becanee  you 
remember. 


NOW,  NOW!— NOT   BY-AND-BYE. 

A  SERMOK    TO    THE   YOUi^G. 


6ERM0N  XIIL 


HOW,   NOW — NOT   BY-AND-BYB. 

A  SERMON  TO   THE  YOUNG. 

"And  as  Patd  reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and  Judgment  to  oome,  Felix 
trembled,  and  answered,  Gk)  thy  way  for  this  time  ;  when  I  have  a  convenient  season, 
I  will  call  for  thee."    Acts  xxiv.  26. 

Felix  and  his  brother  had  been  favonnte  slaves  of  the 
Emperor,  and  so  had  won  great  power  at  court.  At  the 
date  of  this  incident  he  had  been  for  some  five  or  six 
years  the  procurator  of  the  Roman  province  of  Judea ; 
and  how  he  used  his  power  the  historian  Tacitus  tells  us 
in  one  of  his  bitter  sentences,  in  which  ho  says,  "He 
wielded  his  kingly  authority  with  the  spirit  of  a  slave,  in 
all  cruelty  and  lust." 

He  had  tempted  from  her  husband,  Drusilla,  a  daughter 
of  that  Herod  whose  dreadful  death  is  familiar  to  us  all  ; 
and  his  court  reeked  with  blood  and  debauchery.  He  is 
here  face  to  face  with  Paul  for  the  second  time.  On  a 
former  interview  he  had  seen  good  reason  to  conclude 
that  the  Roman  Empire  was  not  in  much  danger  from 
this  one  Jew  whom  his  countrymen,  with  suspicious 
loyalty,  were  charging  with  sedition ;  and  so  he  had 
allowed  him  a  very  large  margin  of  liberty. 


166  NOW,  NOW  I— NOT   BY-AND-BYB. 

On  this  second  occasion  he  had  sent  for  him  evidently 
not  as  a  judge,  but  partly  with  a  view  to  try  to  get  a  bribe 
out  of  him,  and  partly  because  he  had  some  kind  of 
languid  interest,  as  most  Romans  then  had,  in  Oriental 
thought, — some  languid  interest  perhaps  too  in  this 
strange  man.  Or  he  and  Drusilla  were  possibly  longing 
for  a  new  sensation,  and  not  indisposed  to  give  a  moment's 
glance  at  Paul,  with  his  singular  ideas. 

So  they  called  for  the  Apostle,  and  the  guilty  couple 
got  a  good  deal  more  than  they  bargained  for.  Paul  does 
not  speak  to  them  as  a  Greek  philosopher,  anxious  to 
please  high  personages,  might  have  done,  but  he  goes 
straight  at  their  sins  ;  "  He  reasons  of  righteousness  "  with 
the  unjust  judge,  "  of  temperance  "  with  the  self-indulgent, 
sinful  pair,  "  of  the  judgment  to  come  "  with  these  two, 
who  thought  that  they  could  do  anything  they  liked  with 
impunity.  Christianity  has  sometimes  to  be  exceedingly 
rude  in  reference  to  the  sins  of  the  upper  classes. 

As  Paul  goes  on,  a  strange  fear  began  to  creep  about  the 
heart  of  Felix.  It  is  the  watershed  of  his  life  that  he  has 
come  to,  the  crisis  of  his  fate.  Everything  depends  on  the 
next  five  minutes.  Will  he  yield  ?  Will  he  resist  ?  The 
tongue  of  the  balance  trembles  and  hesitates  for  a  moment 
and  then,  but  slowly,  the  wrong  scale  goes  down.  "  Go 
thy  way  for  this  time." 

Ah  I  If  he  had  said  :  "  Come  and  help  me  to  get  rid  of 
this  strange  fear,"  how  different  all  might  have  been  I  The 
metal  was  at  the  very  point  of  melting.  What  shape 
would  it  take  ?  It  ran  into  the  wrong  mould,  and,  as  far 
as  we  know,  it  was  hardened  there;  "  It  might  have  been 
once,  and  he  missed  it,  lost  it  forever."  No  sign  marked 
out  that  moment  from  the  common  uneventfnl  momenta^ 
though  it  saw  the  death  of  a  soul. 

Now,  my  dear  young  friends,  I  am  not  going  to  say 
anything  more  to  you  of  this  man  and  his  character,  but  I 


NOW,  NOW  I— NOT  BY-AND-BTB.  167 

wish  to  take  this  incident  and  its  lessons  and  urge  them 
on  your  hearts  and  consciences. 

I. — Let  me  say  a  word  or  two  about  the  fact,  of  which 
this  incident  is  an  example,  and  of  which  I  am  afraid 
many  of  your  lives  would  furnish  other  examples,  that 
men  lull  awakened  consciences  to  sleep  and  excuse  delay 
in  deciding  for  Christ  by  half-honest  promises  to  attend 
to  religion  at  some  future  time. 

"Go  thy  way  for  this  time"  is  what  Felix  is  really 
anxious  about.  His  one  thought  is  to  get  rid  of  Paul  and 
his  disturbing  message  for  the  present.  But  he  does  not 
wish  to  shut  the  door  altogether.  He  gives  a  sop  to  his 
conscience  to  stop  its  barking,  and  he  probably  deceives 
himself  as  to  the  gravity  of  his  present  decision  by  the 
lightly  given,  and  well-guarded  promise  with  its  indefin- 
iteness,  "When  I  have  a  convenient  season  I  will  send 
for  thee."  The  thing  he  really  means  is — Not  now,  at  all 
events  :  the  thing  he  hoodwinks  himself  with  is,  By-and- 
bye.  Now  that  is  what  I  know  some  of  you  are  doing ; 
and  my  purpose  and  earnest  prayer  is  to  bring  you  to-night 
to  the  decision  which  by  one  vigorous  act  of  your  wills 
will  settle  the  question  for  the  future  as  to  which  God  you 
are  going  to  follow. 

So,  then,  I  have  just  one  or  two  things  to  say  about  this 
first  part  of  my  subject.  Let  me  remind  you  that  however 
beautiful,  however  gracious,  however  tender,  and  full  of 
love  and  mercy,  and  good  tidings  the  message  of  God*s 
love  in  Jesus  Christ  is,  there  is  another  side  to  it,  a  side 
which  is  meant  to  rouse  men's  consciences  and  to  awaken 
men's  fears. 

You  bring  a  man  like  the  man  in  this  story,  Felix, 
or  a  very  much  better  man  than  he — any  of  us  that  are 
here  to  night — into  contact  with  these  three  thoughts  : — 
"  Righteousness,  temperance,  judgment  to  come,"  and  the 
effect  of  a  direct  appeal  to  moral  convictions  will  alwayi 


168  NOW,  NOW  !— NOT  BT-AND-BTB, 

be  more  or  less  to  awaken  a  sense  of  failure,  insufficiency, 
defect,  sin  ;  and  to  create  a  certain  creeping  dread  that  if  I 
set  myself  against  the  great  law  of  God,  that  law  of  God 
will  have  a  way  of  crushing  me.  The  fear  is  well  founded, 
and  not  only  does  the  contemplation  of  God's  law 
excite  it.  God's  Gospel  comes  to  us,  and  just  because  it  is 
a  gospel,  and  is  intended  to  lead  you  and  me  to  love  and 
trust  Jesus  Christ,  and  give  our  whole  hearts  and  souls  to 
Him — just  because  it  is  the  best  "  good  news  "  that  ever 
came  into  the  world,  it  begins  often  (not  always,  perhaps,) 
by  making  a  man  feel  what  a  sinful  man  he  is,  and  how 
he  has  gone  against  God's  law,  and  how  there  hang  over 
him,  by  the  Very  necessities  of  the  case  and  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  universe,  consequences  bitter  and  painful.  Now, 
I  believe  that  there  are  very  few  people  who,  like  you, 
come  occasionally  into  contact  with  the  preaching  of  the 
truth,  who  have  not  had  their  moments  when  they  felt — 
"  Yes  !  it  is  all  true — it  is  all  true.  I  am  bad,  and  I  have 
broken  God's  law,  and  there  is  a  dark  look-out  before  me  I " 
I  believe  that  most  of  us  know  what  that  feeling  is. 

And  now  my  next  step  is  —  that  the  awakened  conscience 
is  just  like  the  sense  of  pain  in  the  physical  world,  it  has 
got  a  work  to  do,  and  a  mission  to  perform.  It  is  meant 
to  warn  you  off  dangerous  ground.  Thank  God  for  pain  ! 
It  keeps  off  death  many  a  time.  And  in  like  manner 
thank  God  for  a  swift  conscience  that  speaks.  It  is  meant 
to  ring  an  alarm-bell  to  us,  to  make  us,  as  the  Bible  has  it, 
"  flee  for  refuge  to  the  hope  that  is  set  before  us."  My 
imploring  question  to  my  young  friends  now  is  :  "  Have 
you  used  that  sense  of  evil  and  wrong  doing,  when  it  has 
been  aroused  in  your  consciences,  to  lead  you  to  Jesus 
Christ,  or  what  have  you  done  with  it  ?  " 

There  are  two  men  in  this  book  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  who  p..  through  the  same  stages  of  feeling  up 
to  a  certain  point,  and  then  they  diverge.     And  the  two 


NOW,  NOW  1— NOT    BT-AND-BTB.  169 

men's  outline  history  is  the  best  sermon  that  I  can  preach 
upon  this  point.  Felix  becoming  afraid,  recoils,  shuts 
himself  up,  puts  away  the  thing  that  disturbs  him  and 
settles  himself  back  into  his  evil.  The  Philippian  jailor 
becoming  afraid  (the  phrases  in  the  original  being  almost 
identical),  like  a  sensible  man  tries  to  find  out  the  reason 
of  his  fear,  and  how  to  get  rid  of  it ;  and  falls  down  at  the 
Apostles'  feet  and  says,  "Sirs,  what  must  I  do  to  be 
saved  ?  " 

The  fear  is  not  meant  to  last ;  it  is  of  no  nee  in  itself 
It  is  only  an  impelling  motive  that  leads  us  to  look  to  the- 
Saviour,  and  the  man  that  uses  it  so  has  used  it  rightly. 
Yet  there  comes  in  many  a  heart  that  transparent  self- 
dece'ption  of  delay.  "  They  all  with  one  accord  began  to 
make  excuse."  It  is  the  history  to-day  as  it  was  the  his- 
tory then.  It  is  the  history  in  such  a  congregation  as  this. 
There  will  be  dozens,  I  was  going  to  say  hundreds,  that 
will  leave  this  chapel  to  night  feeling  that  my  poor  word 
has  gone  a  little  way  into  their  hardened  hide  ;  but  settling 
themselves  back  into  their  carelessness,  ami  forgetting  all 
impressions  that  have  been  made.  0  dear  young  fi-iend, 
do  not  do  that,  I  beseech  you.  Do  not  stifle  the  wholesome 
alarm,  and  cheat  yourself  with  the  notion  of  a  little  delay  I 

II. — And  now,  I  wish  next  to  pass  very  swiftly  in  review 
before  you,  some  of  the  reasons  why  we  fall  into  this 
habit  of  self-deceiving,  indecision,  and  delay — "Go  thy 
way,"  would  be  too  sharp  and  unmistakable  if  it  were  left 
alone,  so  it  is  fined  ofl: :  "  I  will  not  commit  myself  be- 
yond to-day."  "  For  this  time  go  thy  way,  and  when  I 
have  a  convenient  season  I  will  call  for  thee." 

What  are  the  reasons  for  such  an  attitude  as  that  ?  Let 
me  enumerate  one  or  two  of  them  as  they  strike  me  : — 
First,  there  is  the  instinctive,  natural  wish  to  get  rid  of  a 
disagreeable  subject, — much  as  a  man  without  knowing 
what  he  is  doing,  twitches  his  hand  away  from  the  inr- 


170  NOW,  NOW  I— NOT    BY-AND-BYB. 

geon's  lancet.  So  a  great  many  of  us  do  not  like— and  no 
wonder  we  do  not  like — ^these  thoughts  of  the  old  Book 
about  "righteousness,  and  temperance  and  judgment  to 
come,"  and  make  a  natural  effort  to  get  our  minds  away 
from  the  contemplation  of  the  subject  because  it  is  painful 
and  unpleasant.  Do  you  think  it  would  be  a  wise  thing 
for  a  man,  if  he  began  to  suspect  that  he  was  insolvent,  to 
refuse  to  look  into  his  books  or  to  take  stock,  and  let  things 
drift,  till  there  was  not  a  halfpenny  in  the  pound  for  any- 
body ?  What  do  you  suppose  his  creditors  would  call 
him  ?  They  would  not  compliment  him  on  either  his 
honesty  or  his  prudence,  would  they  ?  And  is  it  not  the 
part  of  a  wise  man,  if  he  begins  to  see  that  something  is 
wrong,  to  get  to  the  bottom  of  it,  and  as  quickly  as  pos- 
sible, to  set  it  right  ?  And  what  do  you  call  people  who, 
suspecting  that  there  may  be  a  great  hole  in  the  bottom  of 
the  ship,  never  man  the  pumps  or  do  any  caulking,  but 
say,  "  Oh  !  she  will  very  likely  keep  afloat  until  we  get 
into  harbour  "  ? 

Do  not  you  think  it  would  be  a  wiser  thing  for  you  if, 
because  the  subject  is  disagreeable,  you  would  force  your- 
self to  think  about  it  until  it  became  agreeable  to  you  ? 
Yon  can  change  it  if  you  will,  and  make  it  not  at  all  a 
shadow  or  a  cloud,  or  a  darkness  over  you.  And  you  can 
scarcely  expect  to  claim  the  designation  of  wise  and 
prudent  orderers  of  your  lives  until  you  do.  Certainly  it 
is  not  wise  to  shuffle  a  thing  out  of  sight  because  it  is  not 
pleasing  to  think  about. 

Then  there  is  another  reason.  A  number  of  you  young 
people  say  :  "  Go  thy  way  for  this  time, "  because  you 
have  got  a  notion  that  it  is  time  enough  for  you  to  begin 
to  think  about  serious  things  and  be  religious  when  you 
get  a  bit  older.  And  some  of  you  even,  I  daresay,  have 
an  idea  that  religion  is  all  very  well  for  people  that  are 
turned  sixty  and  are  going  down  the  hill,  but  that  it  is 


NOW,   NOW  I — NOT  BY-AND-BYE.  171 

qnite  nnnecessary  for  you.  Shakespeare  puts  a  g^rim  word 
into  the  mouth  of  one  of  his  characters,  which  sets  the 
theory  of  many  of  us  in  its  true  light,  when,  describing  a 
dying  man  calling  on  God,  he  makes  the  narrator  say  : 
*'  I,  to  comfort  him,  bid  him  he  should  not  think  of  God. 
I  hoped  there  was  no  need  to  trouble  himself  with  any 
such  thoughts  yet." 

Some  of  my  hearers  practically  live  on  that  principle, 
and  are  tempted  to  regard  thoughts  of  God  as  in  place 
only  among  medicine  bottles,  or  when  the  shadows  of  the 
grave  begin  to  fall  cold  and  damp  on  our  path.  "  Young 
men  will  be  young  men."  "  We  must  sow  our  wild  oats." 
"  You  can't  put  old  heads  on  young  shoulders  "—and  such 
like  sayings,  often  practically  mean  that  vice  and  god- 
lessness  belong  to  youth,  and  virtue  and  religion  to  old 
age,  just  as  flowers  to  spring  and  fruit  to  autumn.  Let 
me  beseech  you  not  to  be  deceived  by  such  a  notion  ;  and 
to  search  your  own  thoughts  and  see  whether  it  be  one  of 
the  reasons  which  leads  you  to  say  "  Go  thy  way  for  this 
time." 

Then  again,  some  of  us  fall  into  this  habit  of  putting 
off  the  decision  for  Christ,  not  consciously,  not  by  any 
distinct  act  of  saying — "  No  !  I  will  not,"  but  simply  by 
letting  the  impressions  made  on  our  hearts  and  con- 
sciences be  crowded  out  of  them  by  cares  and  enjoyments 
and  pleasures  and  duties  of  this  world.  If  you  had  not 
so  much  to  do  at  Owen's  College,  you  would  have  time  to 
think  about  religion.  If  you  had  not  so  many  parties 
and  balls  to  go  to,  you  would  have  time  to  nourish  and 
foster  these  impressions.  If  you  had  not  your  place  to 
make  in  the  warehouse,  if  you  had  not  this,  that,  and  the 
other  thing  to  do  ;  if  you  had  not  love,  and  pleasure,  and 
ambition,  and  advancement,  and  mental  culture  to  attend 
to,  you  would  have  time  for  religion  ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
seed  is  sown  and  the  sower's  back  turned,  hovering  flocks 


172  NOW,   NOW  ! — NOT  BY-AND-BTE. 

of  light-winged  thoughts  and  vanities  pounce  down  up«n 
it  and  carry  it  away  seed  by  seed.  And  if  some  stray 
seed  here  and  there  remains  and  begins  to  sprout,  the  ill 
weeds  which  grow  apace,  spring  up  with  ranker  stems 
and  choke  it.  "  The  cares  of  this  world,  and  the  deceit- 
fulness  of  riches,  and  the  lusts  of  other  things  entering  in, 
choke  the  word,"  and  efface  the  impression  made  upon 
your  hearts. 

Here  to-night  some  serious  thought  is  roused  ;  by  to- 
morrow at  mid-day  it  has  all  gone.  You  did  not  intend  it 
to  go,  you  did  not  set  yourself  to  banish  it,  you  simply 
opened  the  door  to  the  flocking  in  of  the  whole  crowd  of 
the  world's  cares  and  occupations,  and  away  went  the  shy 
solitary  thought  that,  if  it  had  been  cared  for  and  tended, 
might  have  led  you  at  last  to  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Do  not  allow  yourselves  to  be  drifted  by  the  swaying 
current  of  earthly  cares  from  the  impressions  that  are  made 
upon  your  consciences,  and  from  the  duty  that  you  know 
you  ought  to  do  ! 

And  then  some  of  you  fall  into  this  attitude  of  delay, 
and  say  to  the  messenger  of  God's  love  : — "  Go  thy  way 
for  this  time,"  because  you  do  not  like  to  give  up  some- 
thing that  you  know  is  inconsistent  with  His  love  and 
service.  Felix  would  not  part  with  Drusilla,  nor  disgorge 
the  ill-gotten  gain  of  his  province.  Felix  therefore  was 
obliged  to  put  away  from  him  the  thoughts  that  looked  in 
that  direction.  I  wonder  if  there  is  any  young  man  listen- 
ing to  me  now  who  feels  that  if  he  lets  my  words  carry 
him  where  they  seek  to  carry  him,  he  will  have  to  give  up 
"fleshly  lusts  which  war  against  the  soul."  I  wonder  if 
there  is  any  young  woman  listening  to  me  now,  who  feels 
that  if  she  lets  my  words  carry  her  where  they  would  carry 
her,  she  will  have  to  live  a  different  life  from  what  she 
has  been  doing,  to  have  more  of  a  high  and  a  noble  aim 
in  it,  to  live  for  something  else  than  pleasure.     I  wonder 


NOW,   NOW  1 — NOT   BY-AND-BTB.  173 

if  there  are  any  of  you  who  are  saying,  "  I  cannot  give  up 
that."  My  dear  young  friend  1  "  If  thine  eye  offend  thee, 
pluck  it  out  and  cast  it  from  thee  1  It  is  better  for  thee  to 
enter  into  life  blind  than  with  both  eyes  to  be  cast  into 
hell-fire." 

Reasons  for  delay,  then,  are  these  :  first,  getting  rid  of 
an  unpleasant  subject ;  second,  thinking  that  there  is 
time  enough  ;  third,  letting  the  world  obliterate  the 
impressions  that  have  been  made  ;  and  fourth,  shrink- 
ing from  the  surrender  of  something  that  you  know  you 
will  have  to  give  up. 

III. — And  now  let  me  very  briefly,  as  my  last  point,  put 
before  you  one  or  two  of  the  reasons  which  I  would  fain 
might  be  conclusive  with  you  for  present  decision  to  take 
Christ  for  your  Saviour  and  your  Master. 

And  I  say,  do  not  delay,  but  noiv  choose  Him  for  your 
Redeemer,  your  Friend,  your  Helper,  your  Commander, 
your  All ;  because  delay  is  really  decision  the  ^^Tong  way. 
Do  not  delay,  but  take  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  your 
sinful  souls,  and  rest  your  hearts  upon  Him  to-night  be- 
fore you  sleep  ;  because  there  is  no  real  reason  for  delay. 
No  season  will  be  more  convenient  than  the  present  season. 
Every  time  is  the  right  time  to  do  the  right  thing,  every 
time  is  the  right  time  to  begin  following  Him.  There  is 
nothing  to  wait  for.  There  is  no  reason  at  all  except  their 
own  disinclination,  why  every  man  and  woman  in  this 
place  now  should  not  now  grasp  the  cross  of  Christ  as  their 
only  hope  for  forgiveness  and  acceptance,  and  yield  them- 
selves to  that  Lord,  to  live  in  His  service  for  ever.  Let 
not  this  day  pass  without  your  giving  yourselves  to  J  esus 
Christ,  because  every  time  that  you  have  this  message 
brought  to  you,  and  you  refuse  to  accept  it,  or  delay  to  accept 
it,  you  make  yourselves  less  capable  of  receiving  it  another 
time. 

If  yoQ  take  a  bit  of  phosphorus  and  put  it  upon  a  alip 


174  NOW,  NOW  I— NOT  BY-AND-BYE. 

of  wood,  and  ignite  the  phosphorus,  bright  as  the  blaze  is, 
there  drops  from  it  a  white  ash  that  coats  the  wood  and 
makes  it  almost  incombustible.  And  so  when  the  flaming 
conviction,  laid  upon  your  hearts,  has  burnt  itself  out,  it 
has  coated  the  heart,  and  it  will  be  very  difficult  to  kindle 
the  light  there  again.  Felix  said,  "  Go  thy  way,  when 
I  have  a  more  convenient  season  I  will  send  for  thee." 
Yes  I  and  he  did  send  for  him,  and  he  talked  with 
him  often, — He  repeated  the  conversation,  but  we  do  not 
know  that  he  repeated  the  trembling.  He  often  communed 
with  Paul,  but  if  was  only  once  that  he  was  alarmed 
You  are  less  likely  u^  be  touched  by  the  Gospel  message, 
for  every  time  that  >oQ  have  heard  it  and  put  it  away. 
That  is  what  makes  my  place  here  so  terribly  responsible, 
and  makes  me  feel  that  my  words  are  so  very  feeble  in 
comparison  with  what  they  ought  to  be.  I  know  that  I 
may  be  doing  harm  to  men  just  because  they  listen  and 
are  not  persuaded,  and  so  go  away  less  and  less  likely  to 
be  touched. 

Ah  !  dear  friends,  you  will,  perhaps,  never  again  have 
as  deep  impressions  as  you  have  now ;  or  at  least,  they 
are  not  to  be  reckoned  upon  as  probable,  for  the  tendency 
of  all  truth  is  to  lose  its  power  by  repetition,  and  the 
tendency  of  all  emotion  which  is  not  acted  upon  is  to 
become  fainter  and  fainter.  And  so  I  beseech  you  that 
now  you  would  cherish  any  faint  impression  that  is  being 
made  upon  your  hearts  and  consciences.  Let  it  lead  you 
to  Christ ;   and  take  Him  for  your  Lord  and  Saviour  now. 

I  say  to  you  :  Do  that  now,  because  delay  robs  you  of 
large  blessing.  You  will  never  want  Jesus  Christ  more 
than  you  do  to-day.  You  need  Him  in  your  early  hours. 
Why  should  it  be  that  a  portion  of  your  lives  should  be 
left  unfilled  by  that  rich  mercy  ?  Why  should  you  post- 
pone possessing  the  purest  joy,  the  highest  blessing,  the 
Divinest  strength  ?  Why  should  you  put  off  welcoming 


KOW,   NOW  I— NOT  BY-AND-BYB.  175 

your  best  Friend  into  your  heart.       Why  should  you  ? 

I  say  to  you  again,  take  Christ  for  your  Lord,  because 
delay  inevitably  lays  up  for  you  bitter  memories  and 
involves  dreadful  losses.  There  are  good  Christian  men 
and  womijn,  1  have  no  doubt,  in  this  world  now,  who 
would  give  all  they  have  if  they  could  blot  out  of  the 
tablets  of  their  memories  some  past  hours  of  their  lives, 
before  they  gave  their  hearts  to  Jesus  Christ.  I  would 
have  you  ignorant  of  such  transgression.  Oh  I  young 
men  and  women  !  If  you  grow  up  into  middle  life  not 
Christians,  then  should  you  ever  become  so,  you  will  have 
habits  to  fight  with,  and  remembrances  that  will  smart 
and  sting  ;  and  some  of  you,  perhaps,  remembrances  that 
will  pollute  even  thongh  you  are  conscious  that  you  are 
forgiven.  It  is  a  better  thing  not  to  know  the  depths  of 
evil  than  to  know  them  and  to  have  been  raised  from 
them.  You  will  escape  infinite  sorrows  by  an  early 
cleaving  to  Christ  your  Lord. 

4nd  last  of  all,  I  say  to  you,  give  yourselves  to  night  to 
Jesus  Christ,  because  no  to-morrow  may  be  yours.  Delay 
is  gambling,  very  irrationally,  with  a  very  uncertain  thing 
— your  life  and  your  future  opportunities.  "  You  know 
not  what  shall  be  on  the  morrow.'* 

Six-and-twenty  years  I  have  preached  in  Manchester 
these  annual  sermons  to  the  young.  Ah  !  how  many  of 
those  that  heard  the  early  ones  are  laid  in  their  graves  ; 
and  how  many  of  them  were  laid  in  early  graves  ;  and 
how  many  of  them  said,  as  some  of  you  are  saying, 
"When  I  get  older  I  will  turn  religious."  And  they 
never  got  older.  It  is  a  commonplace  word  that,  but  I 
leave  it  on  your  hearts.      You  have  no  time  to  lose. 

Do  not  delay,  because  delay  is  decision  in  the  wrong 
way  ;  do  not  delay  because  there  is  no  reason  for  delay  ; 
do  not  delay  because  delay  robs  you  of  a  large  blessing ; 
do  not  delay  because  delay  lays  up  for  you,  if  ever  you 


176  NOW,   NOW  !— NOT   BY-AND-BYB. 

come  back,  bitter  memories  ;  do  not  delay  because  delay 
may  end  in  death.  And  for  all  these  reasons  come  as  a 
sinful  soul  to  Christ  the  Saviour  ;  and  ask  Him  to  forgive 
you,  and  follow  in  His  footsteps.  And  do  it  now  I  "  To- 
day, if  ye  will  hear  His  voice,  harden  not  your  hearte." 


8ALT   WITHOUT   SAVOUR. 


SERMON  XIV. 


SALT  WITHOUT  SAVOUR. 

"Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth ;  but  if  the  salt  have  lost  its  savour,  wherewith  shall 
It  be  salted  ?  It  is  henceforth  good  for  nothing,  but  to  be  cast  out,  and  to  be  trodden 
under  foot  of  men."    Mat.  v.  13. 

These  words  must  have  seemed  ridiculously  presump- 
tuous, when  they  were  first  spoken,  and  they  have  too  often 
seemed  mere  mockery  and  irony  in  the  ages  since.  A 
Galilean  peasant,  with  a  few  of  his  rude  countrymen  who 
had  gathered  round  him,  stai^Is  up  there  on  the  mountain, 
and  says  to  them,  "  You,  a  handful,  are  the  people  who  are 
to  keep  the  world  from  rotting,  and  to  bring  it  all  its  best 
light."  Strange  when  we  think  that  Christ  believed  that 
these  men  were  able  to  do  these  grand  functions  because 
they  got  their  power  from  Himself  !  Stranger  still  to  think 
that  notwithstanding  all  the  miserable  inconsistencies  of 
the  professing  Church  ever  since,  yet,  on  the  whole,  the 
experience  of  history  has  verified  these  words  !  And 
although  some  wise  men  may  curl  their  lips  with  a  sneer 
as  they  say  about  us  Christians  "  Ye  are  are  the  salt  of  the 
earth  I  "  yet  the  most  progressive,  and  the  most  enlightened, 
and  the  most  moral   portion   of  humanity   has   derived 

n2 


180  SALT  WITHOUT   SAVOUR. 

its  impulse  to  progress,  its  enlightenment  about  the  loftiest 
things,  and  the  purest  portion  of  its  morality  from  the  men 
who  received  their  power  to  impart  these  from  Jesus  Christ. 

And  so,  dear  brethren,  I  have  to  say  two  or  thi-ee  things 
now,  which  I  hope  will  be  plain,  and  eai-nest  and  search- 
ing, about  the  function  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  of 
each  individual  member  of  it,  as  set  forth  in  these  words  ; 
about  the  solemn  possibility  that  the  qualification  for  that 
function  may  go  away  from  a  man  ;  about  the  grave  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  such  a  loss  can  ever  be  repaired  ;  and 
about  the  certain  end  of  the  saltless  salt. 

I. — First,  then,  as  to  the  high  task  of  Christ's  disciples 
as  here  set  forth. 

"Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth  !"  The  metaphor  wants 
very  little  explanation,  however  much  enforcement  it  may 
require.  It  involves  two  things  ;  a  grave  judgment  as  to 
the  actual  state  of  society,  and  a  lofty  claim  as  to  what 
Christ's  followers  are  able  to  do  to  it. 

A  grave  judgment  as  to  the  actual  state  of  society.  It  is 
corrupt  and  tending  to  corruption.  You  do  not  salt  a 
living  thing.  You  salt  a  dead  one  that  it  may  not  be  a 
rotting  one.  And,  says  Christ,  by  implication,  what  He 
eays  plainly  more  than  once  in  other  places  : — "  Human 
society,  without  My  influence,  is  a  carcase  that  is  rotting 
away  and  disintegrating.  And  you,  faithful  handful, 
who  have  partially  apprehended  the  meaning  of  My  mis- 
sion, and  have  caught  something  of  the  spirit  of  My  life, 
you  are  to  be  rubbed  into  that  rotting  mass  to  sweeten  it, 
to  arrest  decomposition,  to  stay  corruption,  to  give  flavour 
to  its  insipidity,  and  to  save  it  from  falling  to  pieces  of  its 
own  wickedness.     Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth." 

Now,  it  is  not  merely  because  we  are  the  bearers  of  a 
truth  that  will  do  all  this  that  we  are  thus  spoken  of,  but 
we  Christian  men  are  to  do  it  by  the  influence  of  conduct 
and  character. 


SALT   WITHOUT   SAVOUR.  181 

There  are  two  or  three  thoughts  suggested  by  this  meta- 
phor. The  chief  one  is  that  of  our  power,  and  therefore 
our  obligation  to  arrest  the  corruption  round  us,  by  our 
own  purity.  The  presence  of  a  good  man,  according  to 
the  old  superstition,  prevented  the  possessed  from  playing 
their  tricks.  The  presence  of  a  good  man  hinders  the 
devil  from  having  elbow  room  to  do  his  work.  Do  you 
and  I  exercise  a  repressive  influence,  (if  we  do  not  do  any- 
thing better,)  so  that  evil  and  low-toned  life  is  ashamed 
to  show  itself  in  our  presence  and  skulks  back  as  do  wrong- 
doers from  the  bull's-eye  of  a  policeman's  lantern.  It  is 
not  a  high  function,  but  it  is  a  very  necessary  one,  and  it 
is  one  that  all  Christian  men  and  women  ought  to  dis- 
charge,— rebuking  and  hindering  the  operation  of  corrup- 
tion, even  if  they  have  not  the  power  to  breathe  a  better 
spirit  into  the  dead  mass. 

But  the  example  of  Christian  men  is  not  only  re- 
pressive. It  ought  to  tempt  foi-th  all  that  is  best  and 
purest  and  highest  in  the  people  with  whom  they  come 
in  contact.  Every  man  that  does  right  helps  to  make 
public  opinion  in  favour  of  doing  right ;  and  every  man 
that  lowers  the  standard  of  morality  in  his  own  life  helps 
to  lower  it  in  the  community  of  which  he  is  a  part.  And 
so  in  a  thousand  ways  that  I  have  no  time  to  dwell  upon 
here,  the  men  that  have  Christ  in  their  hearts  and  some- 
thing of  Christ's  conduct  and  character  repeated  in  theirs 
are  to  be  the  preserving  and  purifying  influence  in  the 
midst  of  this  corrupt  world. 

There  are  two  other  points  that  I  name,  and  do  not  en- 
large upon.  The  first  of  them  is— salt  does  its  work  by 
being  brought  into  close  contact  with  the  thing  which  it  is 
to  work  upon.  And  so  we,  brought  into  contact  as  we  are 
with  plenty  of  evil  and  wickedness  by  many  common 
relations  of  friendship,  of  kindred,  of  business,  of  prox- 
imity, of  citizenship,  and  the  like, — we  are  not  to  seek  to 


182^  BALT   WITHOUT  SAVOUR. 

withdraw  ourselves  from  contact  with  the  evil.  The  only 
way  by  which  the  salt  can  purify  is  by  being  rubbed  into 
the  corrupted  thing. 

And  once  more,  salt  does  its  work  silently,  inconspic- 
uously, gradually.  "  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world, "  says 
Christ  in  the  next  verse.  ±  ight  is  far-reaching  and 
brilliant,  flashing  that  it  may  be  seen.  That  is  one  side 
of  Christian  work,  the  side  that  most  of  us  like  best,  the 
conspicuous  kind  of  work.  Ay  !  but  there  is  a  very  much 
humbler,  and,  as  I  fancy,  a  very  much  more  useful  kind 
of  work  that  we  have  all  to  do.  We  shall  never  be  the 
"  light  of  the  world,"  except  on  condition  of  being  "  the 
salt  of  the  earth."  You  have  to  do  the  humble,  inconspic- 
uous, silent  work  of  checking  corruption  by  a  pure 
example  before  you  can  aspire  to  do  the  other  work  of 
raying  out  light  into  the  darkness,  and  so  drawing  men 
to  Christ  Himself. 

Now,  brethren,  why  do  I  say  all  these  common,  thread- 
bare platitudes,  as  I  know  they  are  ?  Simply  in  order  to 
plant  upon  them  this  one  question  to  the  heart  and  con- 
science of  you  Chi'istian  men  and  women  : — Is  there 
anything  in  your  life  that  makes  this  text,  in  its  applica- 
tion to  you,  anything  else  than  the  bitterest  mockery  ? 

II. — The  grave  possibility  of  the  salt  losing  its  savour. 

There  is  no  need  for  asking  the  question  w^hether  that 
is  a  physical  fact  or  not,  whether  in  the  natural  realm  it  is 
possible  for  any  forms  of  matter  that  have  saline  taste  to 
lose  it  by  any  cause.  That  does  not  at  all  concern  us. 
The  point  is  that  it  is  posssible  for  us,  who  call  ourselves— 
and  are — Christians  to  lose  our  penetrating  pungency, 
which  stays  corruption  ;  to  lose  all  that  distinguishes  us 
from  the  men  that  we  are  to  better. 

Now  I  think  that  nobody  can  look  upon  the  present 
condition  of  professing  Christendom  ;  or,  in  a  narrower 
aspect,  upon  the  present  condition  of  English  Christianity  ; 


SALT   WITHOUT  SAVOUR.  183 

or  in  a  Btill  narrower,  nobody  can  look  ronnd  upon  this 
<;ongregation  ;  or  in  the  narrowest  view,  none  of  us  can  look 
into  our  own  hearts — without  feeling  that  this  saying 
comes  perilously  near  being  true  of  us.  And  I  beg  you, 
dear  Christian  friends,  while  I  try  to  dwell  on  this  point 
to  ask  yourselves  this  question — Lord,  is  it  I  ?  and  not  to 
be  thinking  of  other  people  whom  you  may  suppose  the 
cap  will  fit. 

There  is,  then,  manifest  on  every  side — first  of  all  the 
obliteration  of  the  distinction  between  the  salt  and  the 
mass  into  which  is  inserted,  or  to  put  it  into  other  words, 
Christian  men  and  women  swallow  down  bodily,  and  prac- 
tise thoroughly,  the  maxims  of  the  world,  as  to  life,  and 
what  is  pleasant,  and  what  is  desirable,  and  as  to  the 
application  of  morality  to  business.  There  is  not  a  hair 
of  difference  in  that  respect  between  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  professing  Christian  men,  and  the  irreligious  man 
that  has  his  office  up  the  same  staircase.  I  know,  of  course, 
that  there  are  in  every  communion  saintly  men  and  women 
who  are  labouring  to  keep  themselves  unspotted  from  the 
world,  but  I  know  too  that  in  every  communion  there  are 
those,  whose  religion  has  next  to  no  influence  on  their 
general  conduct,  and  does  not  even  keep  them  from  cor- 
ruption, to  say  nothing  of  making  them  sources  of  purify- 
ing influence.  You  cannot  lay  the  flattering  unction  to 
your  souls  that  the  reason  why  there  is  so  little  difference 
between  the  Church  and  the  world  to-day  is  because  the 
world  has  got  so  much  better.  I  know  that  to  a  large  ex- 
tent the  principles  of  Christian  ethics  have  permeated  the 
consciousness  of  a  country  like  this,  and  have  found  their 
way  even  amongst  people  that  make  no  profession  of  being 
Christians  at  all.  Thank  God  for  it ;  but  that  does  not 
explain  it  all. 

If  you  take  a  red-hot  ball  out  of  a  furnace  and  lay  it 
down  upon  a  frosty  moor,  two  processes  will  go  on — the 


184  SALT  WITHOUT  SAVOUR. 

ball  will  lose  its  heat  and  the  surrounding  atmosphere  will 
gain.  There  are  two  ways  by  which  you  equalise  the 
temperature  of  a  hotter  and  a  colder  body,  the  one  is  by 
the  hot  one  getting  cold,  and  the  other  is  by  the  cold  one 
getting  hot.  If  you  are  not  warming  the  world  the  world 
is  freezing  you.  Every  man  influences  all  round  about 
him,  and  receives  influences  from  them,  and  if  there  be  not 
more  exports  than  imports,  if  there  be  not  more  influencefi 
and  mightier  influences  raying  out  from  him  than  coming 
into  him,  he  is  a  poor  creature,  and  at  the  mercy  of  cir- 
cumstances. ''  Men  must  either  be  hammers  or  anvils  ;  '* 
— must  either  give  blows  or  receive  them.  I  am  afraid 
that  a  great  many  of  us  who  call  ourselves  Christians  get 
a  great  deal  more  harm  from  the  world  than  we  ever 
dream  of  doing  good  to  it.  Remember  this,  "  you  are  the 
salt  of  the  earth, "  and  if  you  do  not  salt  the  world,  the 
world  will  rot  you. 

Is  there  any  difi'erence  between  your  ideal  of  happiness 
and  the  irreligious  one  ?  Is  these  any  difference  between 
your  notion  of  what  is  pleasure,  and  the  irreligious  one  ? 
Is  there  any  difference  in  your  application  of  the  rules  of 
morality  to  daily  life,  any  difference  in  your  general  way 
of  looking  at  things  from  the  way  of  the  ungodly  world  ? 
Yes,  or  No  ?  Is  the  salt  being  infected  by  the  carcase,  or 
is  it  purifying  the  corruption  ?  Answer  the  question, 
brother,  as  before  God  and  your  ovni  conscience. 

Then  there  is  another  thing.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
but  that  all  round  and  shared  by  us,  there  are  instances  of 
ibtd  cooling  of  the  fervour  of  Christian  devotion.  That  is 
the  reason  for  the  small  distinction  in  character  and  con- 
duct between  the  world  and  the  Church  to  day.  An 
Arctic  climate  will  not  grow  tropical  fruits,  and  if  the  heat 
have  been  let  down,  as  it  has  been  let  down,  you  cannot 
expect  the  glories  of  character  and  the  pure  unw^orldliness 
of  conduct  that  you  would  have  had  at  a  higher  tempera- 


SALT   WITHOUT   SAVOUR.  185 

tnre.  Nor  is  there  any  doubt  but  that  the  present  tem- 
perature is,  with  some  of  us,  a  distinct  loss  of  heat.  It 
was  not  always  so  low.     The  thermometer  has  gone  down. 

There  are,  no  doubt,  people  listening  to  me  who  had 
once  a  far  more  vigorous  Christian  life  than  they  have  to- 
day ;  who  were  once  far  more  aflame  with  the  love  of  God 
than  they  are  now.  And  although  I  know,  of  course,  that 
as  years  go  on  emotion  will  become  less  vivid,  and  feeling 
may  give  place  to  principle,  yet  I  know  no  reason  why,  as 
years  go  on,  fervour  should  become  less,  or  the  warmth  of 
our  love  to  our  Master  should  decline.  There  will  be  less 
sputtering  and  crackling  when  the.  fire  burns  up  ;  there 
may  be  fewer  flames  ;  but  there  will  be  a  hotter  glow  of 
ruddy  unflaming  heat.  That  is  what  ought  to  be  in  onr 
Christian  experience. 

Nor  can  there  be  any  doubt,  I  think,  but  that  the  ob- 
literation of  the  distinction  between  us  and  the  world, 
and  the  decay  of  the  fervour  of  devotion  which  leads  to 
it,  are  both  to  be  traced  to  a  yet  deeper  cause,  and  that  is 
the  loss  or  diminution  of  actual  fellowship  with  Jesus 
Christ.  It  was  that  which  made  theso  men  "  salt."  It 
was  that,  which  made  them  "  light."  It  is  that,  and  that 
alone,  which  makes  devotion  burn  fervid,  and  which 
makes  characters  glow  with  the  strange  saintliness  that 
rebukes  iniquity,  and  works  for  the  purifying  of  the 
world. 

And  so  I  would  remind  you  that  fellowship  with  Jesus 
Christ  is  no  vague  exercise  of  the  mind  but  is  to  be  cul- 
tivated by  three  things,  which  I  fear  me  are  becoming 
less  and  less  habitual  amongst  professing  Christians  : — 
Meditation,  the  study  of  the  Bible,  private  prayei.  If 
you  have  not  these— and  you  know  best  whether  you 
have  them  or  not — no  power  in  Heaven  or  earth  can 
prevent  you  from  losing  the  savour  that  makes  you  salt. 

III. — Now,  I   come  to  the  next  step,  and  that  is  the 


186  SALT   WITHOUT   SAVOUR. 

solemn  question,  Is  there  a  possibility  of  re-salting  the 
ealtless  salt,  of  restoring  the  lost  savour  ?  "  Wherewithal 
shall  it  be  salted  ?  "  says  the  Master.  That  is  plain 
enough,  but  do  not  let  us  push  it  too  far.  If  the  Church 
is  meant  for  the  purifying  of  the  world  and  the  Church 
itself  needs  purifying,  is  there  anything  in  the  world  that 
will  do  it  ?  If  the  army  joins  the  rebels  is  there  anything 
that  will  bring  back  the  army  to  submission  ?  Our  Lord 
is  speaking  about  ordinary  means  and  agencies.  He  is 
saying  in  effect,  if  the  one  thing  that  is  intended  to  pre- 
serve the  meat-  loses  its  power,  is  there  anything  lying 
about  that  will  salt  that  ?  So  far,  then,  the  answer  seems 
to  be — No  I 

But  Christ  has  no  intention  that  these  words  should  be 
pushed  to  this  extreme,  that  if  salt  loses  its  savour,  if  a 
man  loses  the  pungency  of  his  Christian  life,  he  cannot 
get  it  back,  by  going  again  to  the  source  from  which  he 
got  it  at  first.  There  is  no  such  implication  in  these 
last  words.  There  is  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a  penitent 
returning  to  the  fountain  of  all  power  and  purity,  nor  of 
the  full  restoration  of  the  lost  savour,  if  a  man  will  only 
bring  about  a  full  reunion  of  himself  with  the  source  of 
the  savour. 

Dear  brethren  I  The  message  is  to  each  of  ns  ;  The  same 
pleading  words,  which  the  Apocalyptic  seer  heard  from 
Heaven,  come  to  you  and  me :  "  Remember,  therefore, 
from  whence  thou  art  fallen,  and  repent,  and  do  the  first 
works."  And  all  the  savour  and  the  sweetness  that  flow 
from  fellowship  with  Jesus  Christ  will  come  back  to  us 
in  larger  measure  than  ever,  if  we  will  return  unto  the 
Lord.  Repentance  and  returning  will  bring  back  the 
Baltness  to  the  salt,  and  the  brilliancy  to  the  light. 

IV. — But  one  last  word  warns  us  what  is  the  certain 
end  of  the  saltless  salt.  As  the  other  Evangelist  puts  it : 
•*  It  is  neither  good  for  the  land  nor  for  the  dnnghilL** 


SALT  WITHOUT  SAVOUR.  187 

You  cannot  pnt  it  upon  the  soil ;  there  is  no  fertilizing 
virtue  in  it.  You  cannot  even  fling  it  into  the  rubbish 
heap ;  it  will  do  mischief  there.  Pitch  it  out  into  the  road  ; 
i;  will  stop  a  cranny  somewhere  between  the  stones  when 
once  it  is  well  trodden  down  by  men's  heels.  That  is  all 
If  it  has^Faiifi^d  ^as  no  use  for  it,  man  has  no  use  for  it. 
it  has  failed  altogeth&f:  the  only  thing  it  was  created  for, 
or  a  lamp  that  will  not  burn,  ifeuife  that  will  not  cut, 
handle,  a  beautiful  stem,  it  may  be  hignrf  a  beautiful 
decorated  ; — does  it  cut,  does  it  burn  ?  If  not,  it  ^^d 
failure  altogether,  and  in  this  world  there  is  no  room  for 
failures.  The  poorest  living  thing  of  the  lowest  type 
will  jostle  the  dead  thing  out  of  the  way.  And  so,  for  the 
salt  that  has  lost  its  savour,  there  is  only  one  thing  to  be 
done  with  it — cast  it  out,  and  tread  it  under  foot. 

Yes  I  Where  are  the  Churches  of  Asia  Minor,  the 
patriarchates  of  Alexandria,  of  Antioch,  of  Constantinople  ; 
the  whole  of  that  early  Syrian,  Palestinian  Christianity  ; 
where  are  they  ?  Where  is  the  Church  of  North  Africa, 
the  Church  of  Augustine  ?  "  Trodden  under  foot  of  men  I  '* 
Over  the  archway  of  a  mosque  in  Damascus  you  can  read 
the  half  obliterated  inscription  : — "Thy  Kingdom,  0  Christ, 
is  an  everlasting  Kingdom.'*  And  above  it : — "  There  is 
no  God  but  God,  and  Mohammed  is  His  prophet  I  '*  The 
salt  has  lost  his  savour,  and  been  cast  out. 

And  does  anybody  believe  that  the  Churches  of  Christen- 
dom are  eternal  in  their  present  shape  ?  I  see  everywhere 
the  signs  of  disintegration  in  the  existing  embodiments 
and  organisations  that  set  forth  Christian  life.  And  I  am 
sure  of  this,  that  in  the  days  that  are  coming  to  us,  the 
storm  in  which  we  are  already  caught,  all  dead  branches 
will  be  whirled  out  of  the  tree.  So  much  the  better  for 
the  tree  1  And  a  great  deal  that  calls  itself  organised 
Christianity   will  have  to  go  down  because  there  is  not 


188  SALT  WITHOUT  SAVOUR. 

Vitality  enough  in  it  to  stand.  For  yon  kno^v  it  is  low 
vitality  that  catches  all  the  diseases  that  are  going  ;  and  it 
is  out  of  the  sick  sheep's  eyeholes  that  the  ravens  peck  the 
eyes.  And  it  will  be  the  feeble  types  of  spiritual  life,  the 
inconsistent  Christianities  of  our  churches,  t,h%t^/and 
yield  the  crop  of  apostates  and  heretics  ^^-^ 
that  will  fall  before  temuty^f' Unless  you  go  back  close  to 

Brethren,  ra^viif  go  further  away.  The  deadness  will 
yaq-^^i  the  coldness  will  become  icier  and  icier  ;  you  will 
lose  more  and  more  of  the  life,  and  show  less  and  less 
of  the  likeness,  and  purity,  of  Jesus  Christ  until  you 
come  to  this — I  pray  God  that  none  of  us  come  to  it — 
"  Thou  hast  a  name  that  thou  livest,  and  art  dead.  "  Dead  I 

My  brother,  let  us  return  unto  the  Lord  our  God,  and 
keep  nearer  Him  than  we  ever  have  done,  and  bring  our 
hearts  more  under  the  influence  of  His  grace,  and  cultivate 
the  habit  of  communion  with  Him  ;  and  pray  and  trust, 
and  leave  ourselves  in  His  hands,  that  His  power  may 
come  into  us,  and  that  we  in  the  beauty  of  our  characters, 
and  the  purity  of  our  lives,  and  the  elevation  of  our  spirits, 
may  witness  to  all  men  that  we  have  been  with  Christ ; 
and  may,  in  some  measure,  check  the  corruption  that  is  io 
the  world  through  lust. 


THE   LAMP  AND   THE   BUSHEL. 


SERMON  XV. 


THB  LAMP  AND  THE  BUSHEL. 

"Te  are  the  light  of  the  world.  A  city  that  ia  set  on  an  hill  cannot  be  hid.  KdthflV 
do  men  light  a  candle  and  put  it  nnder  the  bushel,  but  on  the  candlestick,  and  II 
giveth  light  unto  all  that  are  in  the  house.  Let  your  light  so  sbinc  before  men,  th»t 
they  may  see  your  good  works  and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  Hearen."  MaM,  f, 
14, 16, 16. 

The  conception  of  the  office  of  Christ's  disciples  con- 
tained in  these  words  is  a  still  bolder  one  than  that 
expressed  by  the  preceding  metaphor,  which  we  con- 
sidered last  Sunday.  ''  Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth  "  implied 
superior  moral  purity  and  power  to  arrest  corruption. 
"  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world  "  implies  superior  spiritual 
illumination,  and  power  to  scatter  ignorance. 

That  is  not  all  the  meaning  of  the  words,  but  that  is 
certainly  in  them.  So  then,  our  Lord  here  gives  His 
solemn  judgment  that  the  world  without  Him  and  those 
who  have  learnt  from  Him,  is  in  a  state  of  darkness  ;  and 
that  His  followers  have  that  to  impart  which  will  bring 
certitude  and  clearness  of  knowledge,  together  with  purity 
and  joy  and  all  the  other  blessed  things  which  are  "  the 
fruit  of  the  light." 

That  high  claim  is  illustrated  by  a  very  homely  meta- 
phor.    In  every  humble  house  from  which  His  peasant- 


192  THE  LAMP  AND  THE  BUSHHL. 

followers  came,  there  wonld  be  a  lamp — some  earthen 
saucer  with  a  little  oil  in  it,  in  which  a  wick  floated — a  rude 
stand  to  put  it  upon  ;  a  meal-chest  or  a  flour-bin  ;  and  a 
humble  pallet  on  which  to  lie.  These  simple  pieces  of 
furniture  are  taken  to  point  this  solemn  lesson.  "  When 
you  light  your  lamp  you  put  it  on  the  stand,  do  you  not  ? 
You  light  it  in  order  that  it  may  give  light ;  you  do  not 
put  it  under  the  meal-measure  nor  the  bed.  So  I  have 
kindled  you  that  you  may  shine,  and  put  you  where  yon 
are  that  you  may  give  light." 

And  the  same  thought,  with  a  slightly  different  turn  in 
the  application,  lies  in  that  other  metaphor,  which  is 
inclosed  in  the  middle  of  this  parable  about  the  light. 
"  A  city  that  is  set  on  an  hill  cannot  be  hid."  Where  they 
stood  on  the  mountain,  no  doubt,  they  could  see  some 
village  perched  upon  a  ridge  for  safety,  with  its  white 
walls  gleaming  in  the  strong  Syrian  sunlight ;  a  landmark 
for  many  a  mile  round.  So  says  Christ,  "  The  City  which 
I  found,  the  true  Jerusalem,  like  its  prototype  in  the 
Psalm,  is  to  be  conspicuous  for  situation,  that  it  may  be 
the  joy  of  the  whole  earth." 

I  have  ventured  to  take  all  this  somewhat  long  text  this 
morning  because  all  the  parts  of  it  hold  so  closely  together, 
and  converge  upon  the  one  solemn  exhortation  with 
which  it  closes,  and  which  I  desire  to  lay  upon  your 
hearts  and  consciences,  "  Let  your  light  so  shine  before 
men."  I  make  no  pretensions  to  anything  like  an  arti- 
ficial arrangement  of  my  remarks,  but  simply  follow  the 
words  in  the  order  in  which  they  lie  before  us. 

I. — First  just  a  word  about  the  great  conception  of  a 
Christian  man's  office  which  is  set  forth  in  that  metaphor  : 
"  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world."  That  expression  is  wide, 
"  generic,"  as  they  say.  Then  in  the  unfolding  of  this 
little  parable  our  Lord  goes  on  to  explain  what  kind  of  a 
light  it  is  to  which  He  would  compare  His  people — the 


THE   LAMP   AND  THE  BU.SHBL.  193 

light  of  a  lamp  kindled.  Now  that  is  the  first  point 
that  I  wish  to  deal  with.  Christian  men  individually,  and 
the  Christian  Church  as  a  whole,  shine  by  derived  light. 
There  is  but  One  that  is  light  in  Himself.  He  who  said, 
"  I  am  the  light  of  the  world,  he  that  followeth  Me  shall 
not  walk  in  darkness,"  was  comparing  Himself  to  the  sun- 
shine, whereas  when  He  said  to  us  "  Ye  are  the  light  of 
the  world  ;  men  do  not  light  a  lamp  and  put  it  under  a 
bushel,"  He  was  comparing  us  to  the  kindled  light  of  the 
lamp,  which  had  a  beginning  and  will  have  an  end. 

Before,  and  independent  of.  His  historical  manifestation 
in  the  flesh,  the  Eternal  Word  of  God,  who  froui  the  be- 
ginning was  the  Life,  was  also  the  light  of  men  ;  and  all 
the  light  of  reason  and  of  conscience,  all  which  guides 
and  illumines,  comes  from  that  one  source,  the  Everlasting 
Word,  by  whom  all  things  came  to  be  and  consi  t.  "  He 
was  the  true  light  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world." 

And  further,  the  historic  Christ,  the  Incarnate  Word,  is 
the  source  for  men  of  all  true  revelation  of  God  and  them- 
selves, and  of  the  relations  between  them  ;  the  Incarnate 
Ideal  of  humanity,  the  Perfect  Pattern  of  conduct,  who 
alone  sheds  beams  of  certainty  on  the  darkness  of  life, 
who  has  left  a  long  trail  of  light  as  He  has  passed  into 
the  dim  regions  beyond  the  grave.  In  both  these  senses  He 
is  the  light,  and  we  gather  our  radiance  from  Him. 

We  shall  be  "  light  "  if  we  are  ''  in  the  Lord."  It  is  by 
union  with  Jesus  Christ  that  we  partake  of  His  illumina- 
tion. A  sunbeam  has  no  more  power  to  shine  if  it  be 
severed  from  the  sun  than  a  man  has  to  give  light  in  this 
dark  world  if  He  be  parted  from  Jesus  Christ.  Cut  the  cur- 
rent and  the  electric  light  dies,  slacken  the  engine  and  the 
electric  arc  becomes  dim,  quicken  it  and  it  burns  bright. 
So  the  condition  of  my  being  light  is  my  keeping  un- 
broken my  communication  with  Jesus  Christ ;    and  every 

O 


194  THE   LAMP  AND   THE  BUSHEL. 

variation  in  the  extent  to  which  I  receive  into  my  heart 
the  influx  of  His  power  and  of  His  love  is  correctly 
measured  and  represented  by  the  greater  or  the  lesser 
brilliancy  of  the  light  with  which  I  reflect  His  beauty. 
"Ye  were  some  time  darkness,  but  now  are  ye  light  in 
the  Lord."  Keep  near  to  Him,  and  a  firm  hold  of  His 
hand,  and  then  you  will  be  light. 

And  now  I  need  not  dwell  for  more  than  a  moment  or 
two  upon  what  I  have  already  said  is  included  in  this 
conception  of  the  Christian  man  as  being  light.  There 
are  two  sides  to  it ;  one  is  that  all  Christian  people  who 
have  learned  to  know  Jesus  Christ  and  have  been 
truly  taught  of  Him,  do  possess  a  certitude  and  clear- 
ness of  knowledge  which  make  them  the  lights  of  the 
world.  We  advance  no  claims  to  any  illumination  as  to 
other  than  moral  or  religious  truth.  We  leave  all  the  other 
fields  uncontested.  We  bow  humbly  with  confessed 
ignorance  and  with  unfeigned  gratitude  and  admiration 
before  those  who  have  laboured  in  them  as  our  teachers, 
but  if  we  are  true  to  our  Master,  and  true  to  the  position 
in  which  He  has  placed  us,  we  shall  not  be  ashamed  to 
say  that  we  believe  ourselves  to  know  the  truth,  in  so  far 
as  men  can  ever  know  it,  about  the  all-important  subject 
of  God  and  man,  and  the  bond  between  them. 

To-day  there  is  need,  I  think,  that  Christian  men  and 
women  should  not  be  reasoned  or  sophisticated  or  cowed 
out  of  their  confidence  that  they  have  the  light  because 
they  do  know  God.  It  is  proclaimed  as  the  ultimate  word 
of  modern  thought  that  we  stand  in  the  presence  of  a 
power  which  certainly  is,  but  of  which  we  can  know  no- 
thing except  that  it  is  altogether  different  from  ourselves, 
and  that  it  ever  tempts  us  to  believe  that  we  can  know  it, 
and  ever  repels  us  into  despair.  Our  answer  is  "  Yes  !  we 
could  have  told  you  that  long  ago,  though  not  alto^^ether 
in  your  sense ;  you  have  got  hold  of  half  a  truth,  and  here 


THE  LAMP  AND  THB  BUSHBL.  195 

is  the  whole  of  it : — No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time, 
nor  can  see  Him  1 "  (a  Gospel  of  despair,  verified  by  the 
last  words  of  modern  thinkers).  The  only  begotten  Son, 
which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  declared 
Him" 

Christian  men  and  women  1  "  Ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world."  Darkness  in  yourselves,  ignorant  about  many 
things,  ungifted  with  lofty  talent,  yon  have  got  hold  of 
the  (leeppst  truth  ;  do  not  be  ashamed  to  stand  up  and  say, 
even  in  the  presence  of  Mars'  Hill,  with  all  its  Stoics  and 
Epicureans  : — "  Whom  ye  ignorantly  " — alas  I  not  worship 
— "  Whom  ye  ignorantly  speak  of,  Him  declare  we  unto 
you." 

And  then  there  is  the  other  side,  which  I  only  name,  moral 
purity.  Light  is  the  emblem  of  purity  as  well  as  the 
emblem  of  knowledge,  and  if  we  are  Christians  we  have 
within  us,  by  virtue  of  our  pc-session  of  an  indwelling 
Christ,  a  power  which  teaches  and  enables  us  to  practise  a 
morality  high  above  the  theories  and  doings  of  the  world. 
But  upon  this  there  is  the  less  need  to  dwell,  as  it  was  in- 
volved in  our  consideration  of  the  previous  figure  of  the  salt. 

11. — And  now  the  next  point  that  I  would  make  is  this  : 
following  the  words  before  us,  the  certainty  that  if  we  are 
light  we  shall  shine.  The  nature  and  property  of  light  is 
to  radiate.  It  cannot  choose  but  shine  ;  and  in  like  man- 
ner the  little  village  perched  upon  a  hill  there,  glittering 
and  twinkling  in  the  sunlight,  cannot  choose  but  be  seen.  So, 
says  Christ,  "  If  you  have  Christian  character  in  you,  if 
you  have  Me  in  you,  such  is  the  nature  of  the  Christian 
life  that  it  will  certainly  manifest  itself."  Let  us  dwell 
upon  that  for  a  moment  or  two.  Take  two  thoughts  :  All 
earnest  Christian  conviction  will  demand  expression  ;  and 
all  deep  experience  of  the  purifying  power  of  Christ  upon 
character  will  show  itself  in  conduct. 

All  earnest  conviction  will  demand  expression.     Every- 

02 


196         THE  LAMP  AND  THE  BUSHEL. 

thing  that  a  man  believes  has  a  tendency  to  convert  its 
believer  into  its  apostle.  That  is  not  so  in  regard  of 
common  ev^ery-day  truths,  nor  in  regard  even  of  truths  of 
science,  but  in  regard  of  all  moral  truth.  For  example,  if 
a  man  gets  a  vivid  and  an  intense  conviction  of  the  evils 
of  intemperance  and  the  blessings  of  abstinence,  look 
what  a  fiery  vehemence  of  propagandism  is  at  once  set  to 
work  !  And  so  all  round  the  horizon  of  moral  truth  which 
is  intended  to  affect  conduct.  It  is  of  such  a  sort  that  a 
man  cannot  get  it  into  brain  and  heart  without  causing 
him  before  long  to  say — "  This  thing  has  mastered  me,  and 
turned  me  into  its  slave  ;  and  I  must  speak  according  to 
my  convictions." 

That  experience  works  most  mightily  in  regard  of 
Christian  truth,  as  the  highest.  What  shall  we  say,  then, 
of  the  condition  of  Christian  men  and  women  if  they  have 
not  such  an  instinctive  need  of  utterance  ?  Do  you  ever 
feel  this  in  your  heart : — "  Thy  word  shut  up  in  my  bones 
was  like  a  fire.  I  was  weary  of  forbearing,  and  I  could 
not  stay  "  ?  Professing  Christians  !  do  you  know  anything 
of  the  longing  to  speak  your  deepest  convictions,  the  feeling 
that  the  fire  within  you  is  burning  through  all  envelopings, 
and  will  be  out  ? 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  men  that  have  it  not  ?  God 
forbid  I  should  say  there  is  no  fire,  but  I  do  say  that  if  the 
fountain  never  rises  into  the  sunlight  above  the  dead  level 
of  the  pool  there  can  be  very  little  pressure  at  the  laain  ; 
that  if  a  man  has  not  the  longing  to  speak  his  religious 
convictions  those  convictions  must  be  very  hesitating  and 
very  feeble  ;  that  if  you  never  felt  "  I  must  say  to  some- 
body I  have  found  the  Messias,"  you  have  not  found  Him 
in  any  very  deep  sense,  and  that  if  the  light  that  is  in  you 
can  be  buried  under  a  bushel  it  is  not  much  of  a  light 
after  all,  and  needs  a  great  deal  of  feeding  and  trimming 
before  it  can  be  what  it  ous^ht  to  be. 


THE  LAMP   AND   THE  BUSHEL.  197 

On  the  other  hand.  aU  -»--P  experience  of  the  purifying 
of  /^'-"^'^  upon  character  will  show  itself  in  conduct. 
i«  is  all  very  well  for  people  to  talk  about  having  received 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  the  inner  sanctification  of  God*B 
Spirit.  If  you  have,  let  us  see  it,  and  let  us  see  it  in  the 
commonest,  pettiest  things  of  daily  life.  The  communi- 
cation between  the  inmost  experience  and  the  outermost 
conduct  is  such  as  that  if  there  be  any  real  revolution  deep 
down,  it  will  manifest  itself  in  the  daily  life.  I  make  all 
allowance  for  the  loss  of  power  in  transmission,  for  the 
loss  of  power  in  friction.  1  am  glad  to  believe  that  yon 
and  I,  and  all  our  imperfect  brethren,  are  a  great  deal 
better  in  heart  than  we  ever  manage  to  show  ourselves 
to  be  in  life.  Thank  God  for  the  consolation  that 
may  come  out  of  that  thought — but  notwithstanding  I 
come  back  to  my  point  that  making  all  such  allowance, 
and  setting  up  no  impossible  standard  of  absolute  identity 
between  duty  and  fact  in  this  present  life,  yet,  on  the  whole 
if  we  are  Christian  people  with  any  deep  central  experience 
of  the  cleansing  power  and  influence  of  Christ  and  His 
grace,  we  shall  show  it  in  life  and  in  conduct.  Or,  to  put 
it  into  the  graphic  and  plain  words  of  my  text,  If  we  are 
light  we  shall  shine. 

III. — Again,  and  very  briefly,  this  obligation  of  giving 
light  is  still  further  enforced  by  the  thought  that  that 
was  Christ's  very  purpose  in  all  that  He  has  done  with  us 
and  for  us.  The  homely  figure  here  implies  that  He  has 
not  kindled  the  lamp  to  put  it  under  the  bushel,  but  that 
His  purpose  in  lighting  it  was  that  it  might  give  light. 

God  has  made  us  partakers  of  His  grace,  and  has  given 
it  to  us  to  be  light  in  the  Lord,  for  this  among  other  pur- 
poses, that  we  should  impart  that  light  to  others. 

No  creature  is  so  small  that  it  has  not  the  right  to 
expect  that  its  happiness  and  welfare  shall  be  regarded 
by  God  as  an  end  in  His  dealings  with  it ;  but  no  creatm* 


198  THE  LASrP  AND  THE  BUSHEL. 

is  so  great  that  it  has  tUo  vi^ht  to  expect  that  its  happiness 
or  well-being  shall  be  regarded  by  ir^  .»,^  j^g^j^  ^^  Q^^,g 
only  end  in  His  dealings  with  it.  He  gives  us  x^^^  «„^„g 
His  pardon,  His  love,  the  quickening  of  His  Spirit  by  our 
union  with  Jesus  Christ ;  He  gives  us  our  knowledge  of 
Him,  and  our  likeness  to  Him — what  for  ?  "  For  my  own 
salvation,  for  my  happiness  and  well  being,"  you  say. 
Certainly,  blessed  be  His  name  for  His  love  and  goodness! 
But  is  that  all  His  purpose  ?  Paul  did  not  think  so  when 
he  said,  "God  who  commanded  the  light  to  shine  out 
of  darkness  hath  shined  into  our  hearts  (that  we  might  give 
to  others)  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God 
in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  And  Christ  did  not  think  so 
when  He  said  "  Men  do  not  light  a  candle  and  put  it  un- 
der a  bushel,  but  that  it  may  give  light  to  all  that  are  in 
the  house."  "  Heaven  doth  with  us  as  we  with  torches  do  : 
not  light  them  for  themselves."  The  purpose  of  God  is  that 
we  may  shine.  The  lamp  is  kindled  not  to  illumine  it- 
self, but  that  it  may  "  give  light  to  all  that  are  in  the  house." 
Consider  again,  that  whilst  all  these  things  are  true, 
there  is  yet  a  solemn  possibility  that  men — even  good 
men — may  stifle  and  smother  and  shroud  their  light.  You 
can,  and  I  am  afraid  a  very  large  number  of  you  do,  this ; 
by  two  ways.  You  can  bury  the  light  of  a  holy  character 
under  a  whole  mountain  of  inconsistencies.  If  one  were 
to  be  fanciful,  one  might  say  that  the  bushel  or  meal-chest 
meant  material  well-being,  and  the  bed,  indolence,  and 
love  of  ease.  I  wonder  how  many  Christian  men  and 
women  in  this  place  this  morning  have  buried  their  light 
under  the  fiour-bin  and  the  bed,  so  interpreted.  How 
many  of  us  have  drowned  our  consecration  and  devotion 
in  foul  waters  of  worldly  lusts,  and  have  let  the  love  of 
earth's  goods,  of  wealth  and  pleasure,  and  creature  love, 
come  like  a  poisonous  atmosphere  round  the  lamp  of  our 
Christian  character,  making  it  burn  dim  and  blue. 


THE    LAMP    AND   THE    B'JSHEL.  199 

And  we  can  bury  the  li.i^^lit  of  the  Word  under  cowardly 
and  sheepish  and  indifferent  silence.  I  wonder  ho^r 
many  of  us  have  done  that.  Like  blue-ribbon  men  that 
button  their  great  coats  over  their  blue  ribbons  when  thoy 
go  into  company  where  they  are  afraid  to  show  them, 
there  are  plenty  of  Christian  people  that  are  devout  Chris- 
tians at  the  Communion  Table  that  would  be  ashamed  to 
say  they  were  so  in  the  miduellaneous  company  of  a  rail- 
way carriage  or  a  table  d'hote.  There  are  professing 
Christians  who  have  gone  through  life  in  their  relationships 
to  their  fathers,  sisters,  wives,  children,  friends,  kindred, 
their  servants  and  dependants,  and  have  never  spoken  a 
loving  word  for  their  Master.  That  is  a  sinful  hiding 
your  light  under  the  bushel  and  the  bed. 

IV. — And  so  the  last  word,  into  which  all  this  converges, 
is  the  plain  duty:  If  you  are  light,  shine  !  "Let  your 
light  so  shine  before  men,"  says  the  text,  "  that  they  may 
see  your  good  works  and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in 
Heaven." 

In  the  next  chapter  our  Lord  says  :  "  Take  heed  that  ye 
do  not  your  alms  before  men  to  be  seen  of  them.  Thou 
Shalt  not  be  as  the  hypocrites  are ;  for  they  love  to  pray 
standing  in  the  synagogues  that  they  may  be  seen  of  men." 
What  is  the  difference  between  the  two  sets  of  men  and 
the  tw^o  kinds  of  conduct  ?  The  motive  makes  the  differ- 
ence for  one  thing,  and  for  another  thing  :  "  Let  your  light 
so  shine"  does  not  mean  "take  precautions  that  your 
goodness  may  come  out  into  public,"  but  it  means  "Shine  1" 
You  find  the  light,  and  the  world  will  find  the  eyes,  no 
fear  of  that  I  You  do  not  need  to  seek  "  to  be  seen  of 
men, "  but  you  do  need  to  shine  that  men  may  see. 

The  lighthouse  keeper  takes  no  pains  that  the  ships 
tossing  away  out  at  s^a  may  behold  the  beam  that  shines 
from  his  lamp,  but  all  tliat  he  does  is  to  feed  it  and  tend 
it.     And  that   is  all  that  you  and  I  have  to  do — tend  the 


200         THE  LAMP  AND  THE  BUSHEL. 

light,  and  do  not,  like  cowards,  cover  it  up.  Modestly,  but 
yet  bravely,  carry  out  your  Christianity,  and  men  will 
see  it.  Do  not  be  as  a  dark  lantern,  burning  with  the 
slides  down  and  illuminating  nothing  and  nobody.  Live 
your  Christianity,  and  it  will  be  beheld. 

And  remember,  candles  are  not  lit  to  be  looked  at. 
Candles  are  lit  that  something  else  may  be  seen  by  them. 
Men  may  see  God  through  your  words,  through  your 
conduct,  that  never  would  have  beheld  Him  otherwise, 
because  His  beams  are  too  bright  for  their  dim  eyes. 
And  it  is  an  awful  thing  to  think  that  the  world  always — 
always — takes  its  conception  of  Christianity  from  the 
Church,  and  neither  from  the  Bible  nor  from  Christ ;  and 
that  it  is  you  and  your  like,  you  inconsistent  Christians  ; 
you  people  that  say  your  sins  are  forgiven  and  are  doing 
the  old  sins  day  by  day  which  you  say  are  pardoned  ;  you 
low-toned,  unpraying,  worldly  Christian  men,  who  have  no 
elevation  of  character  and  no  self-restraint  of  life  and  no 
purity  of  conduct  above  the  men  in  your  own  profession 
and  in  your  own  circumstances  all  round  you — it  is  you 
that  are  hindering  the  coming  of  Christ's  Kingdom,  it  is 
you  that  are  the  standing  disgraces  of  the  Church,  and 
the  weaknesses  and  diseases  of  Christendom.  I  speak 
strongly,  not  half  as  strongly  as  the  facts  of  the  case  would 
warrant ;  but  I  lay  it  upon  all  your  consciences  as  profess- 
ing Christian  people  to  see  to  it  that  no  longer  your 
frivolities,  or  doubtful  commercial  practices,  nor  low, 
unspiritual  tone  of  life,  your  self-indulgence  in  household 
arrangements,  and  a  dozen  other  things  that  I  might 
name — that  no  longer  do  they  mar  the  clearness  of  your 
testimony  i'or  your  Master,  and  disturb  with  envious 
streaks  of  darkness  the  light  that  shines  from  His 
followers. 

How  effectual  such  a  witness  may  be  none  who  have 
not  seen  its  power  can  suppose.    Example  does  tell.    A 


THE  LAMP   AND  THB  BUSHEL.  901 

holy  life  cnrbs  evil,  ashamea  to  show  itself  in  that  pure 
presence.  A  good  man  or  woman  reveals  the  ugliness  of 
evil  by  shewing  the  beauty  of  holiness.  More  converts 
would  be  made  by  a  Christ-like  Church  than  by  many 
sermons.  Oh  1  if  you  professing  Christians  knew  your 
power  and  should  use  it,  if  you  would  come  closer  to 
Christ,  and  catch  more  of  the  light  from  His  face,  you 
might  walk  among  men  like  very  angels,  and  at  your 
bright  presence  darkness  would  flee  away,  ignorance 
would  grow  wise,  impurity  be  abashed  and  sorrow  com- 
forted. 

Be  not  content,  I  pray  you,  till  your  own  hearts  are 
fully  illumined  by  Christ,  having  no  part  dark—and  then 
live  as  remembering  that  you  have  been  made  light  that 
you  may  shine.  "  Arise,  shine,  for  thy  light  is  come,  and 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee  I " 


MAN'S  TRUE  TREASURE  IN  GOD. 


SERMON  XVI. 


MAU'S  TRUE  TREASURE  IN  GOD. 


"The  Lord  is  the  portion  of  mine  inheritance  and  of  my  cup ;  Thou  malntainest  aij 
lot.    The  lines  are  fallen  unto  me  in  pleasant  places ;  yea,  I  have  a  goodly  heritage.* 
Psalm  XTi.  6,  6. 


Wb  read,  in  the  law  which  created  the  priesthood  iD 
Israel,  that  "  the  Lord  spake  unto  Aaron,  Thou  shalt  have 
no  inheritance  in  their  land,  neither  shalt  thou  have  any 
part  among  them.  I  am  thy  part  and  thine  inheritance 
among  the  children  of  Israel."  (Num.  xvii.  20.)  Now 
there  is  an  evident  allusion  to  that  remarkable  provision 
in  this  text.  The  Psalmist  feels  that  in  the  deepest  sense 
he  has  no  possession  amongst  the  men  who  have  only 
possessions  upon  earth,  but  that  God  is  the  treasure  which 
he  grasps  in  a  rapture  of  devotion  and  self-abandonment. 
The  priest's  duty  is  his  choice.  He  will  "  walk  by  faith 
and  not  by  sight." 

Are  not  all  Christians  priests  ?  and  is  not  the  very 
essence  and  innermost  secret  of  the  religious  life  this, — 
that  the  heart  turns  away  from  earthly  things  and  deliber- 
ately accepts  God  as  its  supreme  good,  and  its  only  portion  ? 


206  MAN'S  TRUE  TRE  iSURB  IN  GOD. 

These  first  words  of  my  text  contain  the  essence  of  all 
tme  religion. 

The  connexion  between  the  first  clause  and  the  others 
is  closer  than  many  readers  perceive.  The  "  lot "  which 
"  Thou  maintainest,"  the  "  pleasant  places,"  the  "  goodly 
heritage,"  all  carry  on  the  metaphor,  and  all  refer  to  God 
as  Himself  the  portion  of  the  heart  that  chooses  and  trusts 
Him.  "  Thou  maintainest  my  lot."  He  Who  is  our  in- 
heritance also  guards  our  inheritance,  and  whosoever  has 
taken  God  for  his  possession  has  a  possession  as  sure  as 
God  can  make  it.  "  The  lines  are  fallen  to  me  in  pleasant 
places  ;  yea,  I  have  a  goodly  heritage."  The  heritage  that 
is  goodly  is  God  Himself.  When  a  man  chooses  God  for 
his  portion,  then,  and  then  only  is  he  satisfied  ; — "  satisfied 
with  favour,  and  full  of  the  goodness  of  the  Lord."  Let 
me  try  and  expand  and  enforce  those  thoughts,  with  the 
hope  that  we  may  catch  something  of  their  fervour  and 
their  glow. 

I. — The  first  thought,  then,  that  comes  out  of  the  words 
before  us  is  this  : — all  true  religion  has  its  very  heart  in 
deliberately  choosing  God  as  my  supreme  good. 

"  The  Lord  is  the  portion  of  my  inheritance  and  of  my 
cup."  The  two  words  which  are  translated  in  our  version 
"  portion  "  and  "  inheritance  "  are  substantially  synonymous 
The  latter  of  them  is  used  continually  in  reference  to  the 
share  of  each  individual,  or  family,  or  tribe  in  the  par- 
tition of  the  land  of  Canaan.  There  is  a  distinct  allusion, 
therefore,  to  that  partition  in  the  language  of  our  text ; 
and  the  two  expressions,  part  or  "  portion,"  and  "  inherit- 
ance," are  substantially  identical,  and  really  mean  just  the 
same  as  if  the  single  expression  had  stood  : — "  The  Lord 
is  my  portion." 

I  may  just  notice  in  passing  that  these  words  are  evi- 
dently alluded  to  in  the  New  Testament,  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Colossians,  where  Paul  speaks  of  God  "  having  made 


man's  true  treasure  in  god.  207 

us  meet  for  the  portion  of  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in 
light." 

And  then  the  "portion  of  my  cnp"  ie  a  somewhat 
strange  expression.  It  is  found  in  one  of  the  other  Psalms, 
with  the  meaning  "  fortune,"  or  "  destiny,"  or  "  sum  of  cir- 
cumstances which  make  up  a  man's  life."  There  may  be,  of 
course,  an  allusion  to  the  metaphor  of  a  feast  here,  and 
God  may  be  set  forth  as  "  the  portion  of  my  cup,"  in  the 
sense  of  being  the  refreshment  and  sustenance  of  a  man's 
Boul.  But  I  should  rather  be  disposed  to  consider  that 
there  is  merely  a  prolongation  of  the  earlier  metaphor, 
and  that  the  same  thought  as  is  contained  in  the  figure  of 
the  "  inheritance  "  is  expressed  here,  (as  in  common  con- 
versation it  is  often  expressed)  by  the  word  "  cup," — namely, 
that  which  makes  up  a  man's  portion  in  this  life."  It  is 
used  with  such  a  meaning  in  the  well-known  words  : 
"  My  cup  runneth  over,"  and  in  another  shape  in,  "  The 
cup  which  My  Father  hath  given  Me,  shall  I  not  drink  it  ?  " 
It  is  the  sum  of  circumstances  which  make  up  a  man's 
"fortune."  So  the  double  metaphor  presents  the  one 
thought  of  God  as  the  true  possession  of  the  devout  soul. 

Now  how  do  we  possess  God  ?  We  possess  things  in 
one  fashion  and  persons  in  another.  The  lowest  and  most 
imperfect  form  of  possession  is  that  by  which  a  man 
simply  keeps  other  people  off  material  good,  and  asserts 
the  right  of  disposal  of  it  as  he  thinks  proper.  A  blind 
man  may  have  the  finest  picture  that  ever  was  painted  ; 
he  may  call  it  his,  that  is  to  say,  nobody  else  can  sell  it, 
but  what  good  is  it  to  him  ?  A  lunatic  may  own  a  library 
as  big  as  the  Bodleian,  but  what  use  is  it  to  him  ?  Does 
the  man  who  draws  the  rents  of  a  mountain-side,  or  the 
poet  or  painter,  to  whom  its  cliffs  and  heather  speak  far- 
reaching  thoughts,  most  truly  possess  it  ?  The  highest  form 
of  possession,  even  of  things,  is  when  they  minister  to  our 
thought,   to   our  emotion,  to  our  moral  and  intellectual 


208  MAN'S  TRUB  TREASURE  IN  GOD. 

growth.    We  possess  even  them  really,  according  as  w« 

know  them  and  hold  communion  with  them. 

But  when  we  get  up  into  the  region  of  persons,  we 
possess  them  in  the  measure  in  which  we  understand 
them,  and  sympathise  with  them,  and  love  them.  Know- 
ledge, intercourse,  sympathy,  affection  ;  these  are  the  ways 
by  which  men  can  possess  men,  and  spirits,  spirits.  A 
man  that  gets  the  thoughts  of  a  great  teacher  into  his 
mind,  and  has  his  whole  being  saturated  by  them,  may 
be  said  to  have  made  the  teacher  his  own.  A  friend  or  a 
lover  owns  the  heart  that  he  or  she  loves,  and  which  loves 
back  again  ;  and  not  otherwise  do  we  possess  God. 

Such  ownership  must  be,  from  its  very  nature,  reciprocal. 
There  must  be  the  two  sides  to  it.  And  so  we  read  in  the 
Bible,  with  equal  frequency  :  the  Lord  is  the  "  inheritance 
of  His  people,"  and  His  people  are  "  the  inheritanee  of 
the  Lord."  He  possesses  me,  and  I  possess  Him — with 
reverence  be  it  spoken — by  the  very  same  tenure  ;  for  who- 
so loves  God  has  Him,  and  whom  He  loves  He  owns. 
There  is  deep  and  blessed  mystery  hivolved  in  this 
wonderful  prerogative,  that  the  loving  believing  heart  has 
God  for  its  possession  and  indwelling  Guest ;  and  people 
are  apt  to  brush  such  thoughts  aside  as  mystical.  But 
like  all  true  Christian  mysticism,  it  is  intensely  practical. 

We  have  God  for  ours  first  in  the  measure  in  which  our 
minds  are  actively  occupied  with  thoughts  of  Him.  We 
have  no  merely  mystical  or  emotional  possession  of  God 
to  preach.  There  is  a  real,  adequate  knowledge  of  Him 
in  Jesus  Christ.  We  know  God,  His  character,  His  heart, 
His  relations  to  us,  His  thoughts  of  good  concerning  us, 
sufficiently  for  all  intellectual  and  for  all  practical  purposes. 
I  wish  to  ask  yon  a  plain  question.  Do  yon  ever  think 
about  Him? 

There  is  only  one  way  of  getting  God  for  yours,  and 
that  is  by  bringing  Him  into  yonr  life  by  frequent  medi- 


MAN'S  TRUB  TREASURE  IN  GOD.         209 

tation  upon  His  sweetness,  and  upon  the  truths  that  you 
know  about  Him.  There  is  no  other  way  by  which  a 
spirit  can  possess  a  spirit,  that  is  not  cognisable  by  sense, 
except  only  by  the  way  of  thinking  about  Him,  to  begin 
with.  All  else  follows  that.  That  is  how  you  hold  your 
dear  ones  when  they  go  to  the  other  side  of  the  world. 
That  is  how  you  hold  God  Who  dwells  on  the  other  si<le 
of  the  stars.  There  is  no  way  to  "  have  "  Him,  but  throuirh 
the  understanding  accepting  Him,  and  keeping  firm  hold 
of  Him.  Men  and  women  that  from  Monday  morning  to 
Saturday  night  never  think  of  His  name ;  how  do  they 
possess  God  ?  And  professing  Christians  that  never 
remember  Him  all  the  day  long — what  absurd  hypocrisy 
it  is  for  them  to  say  that  God  is  theirs  ! 

Yours,  and  never  in  your  mind  !  When  your  husband, 
or  your  wife,  or  your  child,  goes  away  from  home  for  a 
week,  do  you  forget  them,  as  utterly  as  you  forget  God  ? 
Do  you  have  them  in  any  sense  if  they  never  dwell  in  the 
"  study  of  your  imagination,"  and  never  fill  your  thoughts 
with  sweetness  and  with  light  ? 

And  so  again  when  the  heart  turns  to  Him,  and  when 
all  the  faculties  of  our  being,  will,  and  hope,  and  imagin- 
ation, and  all  our  affections  and  all  our  practical  powers, 
when  they  all  touch  Him,  each  in  its  proper  fashion,  then 
and  then  only  can  we  in  any  reasonable  and  true  sense  be 
said  to  possess  God. 

Thought,  communion,  sympathy,  affection,  moral  like- 
ness, practical  »bedience,  these  are  the  way — and  not  by 
mystical  raptures  only — by  which,  in  simple  prose  fact,  is 
it  possible  for  the  finite  to  grasp  the  infinite  ;  and  for  a 
man  to  be  the  owner  of  God. 

Now  there  is  another  consideration  very  necessary  to  be 
remembered,  and  that  is  that  this  possession  of  God  involves, 
and  is  possible  only  by,  a  deliberate  act  of  renunciation. 
The  Levite's  example,  that  is  glanced  at  in  my  text,  is 

F 


210  man's  true  treasure  in  god. 

always  our  law.  You  must  have  no  part  or  inheritance 
amongst  the  sons  of  earth  if  God  is  to  be  your  inheritance. 
Or,  to  put  it  into  plain  words,  there  must  be  a  giving  up 
of  the  material  and  the  created  if  there  is  to  be  a  posses- 
sion of  the  Divine  and  the  Heavenly.  There  cannot  be 
two  supreme,  any  more  than  there  can  be  two  pole-stars, 
one  in  the  north,  and  the  other  in  the  south  to  both  of 
which  a  man  can  be  steering. 
You  cannot  stand  with — 

**One  foot  on  land.,  and  one  on  n% 
To  one  thing  constant  never." 

If  you  are  going  to  have  God  as  your  supreme  good  yon 
must  empty  your  heart  of  earth  and  worldly  things,  or  your 
possession  of  Him  will  be  all  words,  and  imagination, 
and  hypocrisy.  Brethren  !  I  wish  to  bring  that  message 
to  your  consciences  to-day. 

And  what  is  this  renunciation  ?  There  must  be,  first  of 
all,  a  fixed,  deliberate,  intelligent  conviction  lying  at  the 
foundation  of  my  life  that  God  is  best,  and  that  He  and 
He  only  is  my  true  delight  and  desire.  Then  there  must 
be  built  upon  that  intelligent  conviction  that  God  is  best, 
the  deliberate  turning  away  of  the  heart  from  these 
material  treasures.  Then  there  must  be  the  willingness 
to  abandon  the  outward  possession  of  them,  if  they  come 
in  between  us  and  Him.  Just  as  travellers  in  old 
days,  that  went  out  looking  for  treasures  in  the  western 
hemisphere,  were  glad  to  empty  out  their  ships  of  their 
less  precious  cargo  in  order  to  load  them  with  gold, 
you  must  get  rid  of  the  trifles,  and  fling  these  away  if 
ever  they  so  take  up  your  heart  that  God  has  no  room 
there.  Or,  rather,  perhaps,  if  the  love  of  God  in  any 
real  measure,  howsoever  imperfectly,  once  gets  into  a 
man's  soul,  it  will  work  there  to  expel  and  edge  out  the 
love  and  regard  for  earthly  things. 

Jast  as  when  the  chemist  collects  oxygen  in  a  vessel 


MAN'S  TRUE  TREASURE  IN  GOD.  211 

filled  with  water,  as  it  passes  into  the  jar  it  drives  out  the 
water  before  it ;  the  love  of  God,  if  it  come  into  a  man's 
heart  in  any  real  sense,  in  the  measure  in  which  it  comes, 
will  deliver  him  from  the  love  of  the  world. 

But  between  the  two  there  is  warfare  so  internecine 
and  endless  that  they  cannot  co-exist  :  and  here,  to-day,  it 
is  as  true  as  ever  it  was  that  if  you  want  to  have  God  for 
your  portion  and  your  inheritance  you  must  be  content  tc 
have  no  inheritance  amongst  your  brethren,  nor  part 
amongst  the  sons  of  earth. 

Men  and  women  I  Are  you  ready  for  that  renunciation  ! 
are  you  prepared  to  say,  "  I  know  that  the  sweetness  of 
Thy  presence  is  the  truest  sweetness  that  I  can  taste  ;  and 
lo  I  I  give  up  all  besides  and  my  own  self — 

"  0  God  of  good,  the  nufathomed  sea, 
Who  would  not  yield  himself  to  The«?" 

And  remember,  that  nothing  less  than  these  are  Christ- 
ianity— the  conviction  that  the  world  is  second  and  not 
first ;  that  God  is  best,  love  is  best,  truth  is  best ;  know- 
ledge of  Him  is  best ;  likeness  to  Him  is  best ; 
the  willingness  to  surrender  all  if  it  come  in  contest  with 
His  supreme  sweetness.  He  that  turns  his  back  upon 
earth  by  reason  of  the  drawing  power  of  the  glory  that 
excelleth,  is  a  Christian.  The  Christianity  that  only  trusts 
to  Christ  for  deliverance  from  the  punishment  of  sin,  and 
so  makes  religion  a  kind  of  fire  insurance,  is  a  very  poor 
affair.  We  need  the  lesson  pealed  into  our  ears  as  much 
as  any  generation  has  ever  done,  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and 
mammon.  A  man's  real  working  religion  consists  in  his 
loving  God  most  and  counting  His  love  the  sweetest  of  all 
things. 

II. — Now  let  me  turn  to  the  next  point  that  is  here,  viz., 
that  this  possession  is  as  sure  as  God  can  make  it.  "  Thou 
maintainest  my  lot."  Thou  art  Thyself  both  my  heritage, 
and  the  guardian  of  my  heritage.      He  that  possesses 

P2 


212  MAN'S  TRUE   TREASURE   IN   GOD. 

God,  says  the  text,  therefore,  by  implication,  is  lifted 
above  all  fear  and  chance  of  change. 

The  land,  the  partition  of  which  amongst  the  tribes  lies 
at  the  bottom  of  the  allusive  metaphor  of  my  text,  was 
given  to  them  under  the  sanction  of  a  supernatural  defence  ; 
and  the  law  of  their  continuance  in  it  was  that  they  should 
trust  and  serve  the  unseen  King.  It  was  He,  according  to 
the  theocratic  theory  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  not 
chariots  and  horses,  their  own  arm  and  their  own  sword, 
that  kept  them  safe,  though  the  enemies  on  the  north  and 
the  enemies  on  the  south  were  big  enough  to  swallow  up 
the  little  kingdom  at  a  mouthful. 

And  so,  says  the  Psalmist  allusively,  in  a  similar  man- 
ner, the  Divine  Power  surrounds  the  man  who  chooses 
God  for  his  heritage,  and  nothing  shall  take  that  heritage 
from  him. 

The  lower  forms  of  possession,  by  which  men  are  called 
the  owners  of  material  goods  are  imperfect,  because  they 
are  all  precarious  and  temporary.  Nothing  really  belongs 
to  a  man  if  it  can  be  taken  from  him.  What  we  may  lose 
we  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have.  They  are  mine,  they 
were  yours,  they  ivill  he  somebody's  else  to-morrow. 
Whilst  we  have  them  we  do  not  have  them  in  any  deep 
sense  ;  we  cannot  retain  them,  they  are  not  really  ours  at 
all.  The  only  thing  that  is  worth  calling  mine  is  some- 
thing that  so  passes  into  and  saturates  the  very  substance 
of  my  soul ;  that,  like  a  piece  of  cloth  dyed  in  the  grain, 
as  long  as  two  threads  hold  together  the  tint  will  be  there. 
That  is  how  God  gives  us  Himself,  and  nothing  can  take 
Him  out  of  a  man's  soul.  He,  in  the  sweetness  of  His 
grace,  bestows  Himself  upon  man,  and  guards  His  <  wn 
gift,  in  the  heart,  which  is  Himself.  He  who  dwells  in 
God  and  God  in  him  lives  as  in  the  inmost  keep  and 
citadel.  The  noise  of  battle  may  roar  around  the  walls, 
but  deep  silence  and  peace  are  within.     The  storm  may 


MAN'S  TRUE  TRBASURB   IN  GOD.  213 

rage  upon  the  coasts,  but  he  who  has  God  for  his  portion 
dwells  in  a  quiet  inland  valley  where  the  tempests  never 
come.  No  outer  changes  can  touch  our  possession  of  God. 
They  belong  to  another  region  altogether.  Other  goods 
may  go,  but  this  is  held  by  a  different  tenure.  The  life 
of  a  Christian  is  lived  in  two  regions  ;  in  the  one  his  life 
has  its  roots,  and  its  brandies  extend  to  the  other.  In  the 
one  there  may  be  whirling  storms  and  branches  may  toss 
and  snap,  whilst  in  the  other  to  which  the  roots  go  down, 
may  be  peace.  Root  yourselves  in  God,  making  Him 
your  truest  treasure,  and  nothing  can  rob  you  of  your 
wealth. 

We  here  in  this  commercial  community  see  plenty  of 
examples  of  great  fortunes  and  great  businesses  melting 
away  like  yesterday's  snow.  And  surely  the  difficulties 
and  perplexities  in  which  much  of  our  Lancashire  trade 
is  involved  to-day  might  preach  to  some  of  you  this  lesson  : 
Set  not  your  hearts  on  that  which  can  pass,  but  make 
your  treasure  that  which  no  man  can  take  from  you. 

Then,  too,  there  is  the  other  thought.  He  will  help  us 
flo  that  no  temptations  shall  have  power  to  make  us  rob 
ourselves  of  our  treasure.  None  can  take  it  from  us  but  our- 
selves, but  we  are  so  weak  and  surrounded  by  temptations 
BO  strong  that  we  need  Him  to  aid  us  if  we  are  not  to  be 
beguiled  by  our  own  treacherous  hearts  into  parting  with 
our  highest  good.  A  handful  of  feeble  Jews  were  nothing 
against  the  gigantic  might  of  Assyria,  or  against  the  com- 
pacted strength  of  civilised  Egypt,  but  there  they  stood, 
on  their  rocky  mountains,  defended,  not  by  their  own 
strength  but  by  the  might  of  a  present  God.  And  so,  unfit 
to  cope  with  the  temptations  round  us  as  we  are,  if  we 
cast  ourselves  upon  His  power  and  make  Him  our  supreme 
delight,  nothing  shall  be  able  to  rob  us  of  that  possession 
and  that  sweetness. 

And  there  is  just  one  last  point  that  I  would  refer  to 


214  MAN'S  TRUE  TREASURE  IN  GOD. 

here  on  this  matter  of  our  stable  possession  of  God.  It  is 
very  beautiful  to  observe  that  this  Psalm,  which,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  my  text,  rises  to  the  very  height  of  spiritual,  and, 
in  a  good  sense,  mystical  devotion,  recognising  God  as 
the  One  good  for  souls,  is  also  one  of  the  Psalms  which 
has  the  clearest  utterance  of  the  faith  in  immortality. 
Just  after  the  words  of  my  text  we  read  these  others,  in 
which  the  Old  Testament  confidence  in  a  life  beyond  the 
grave  reaches  its  very  climax  :  "  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my 
soul  in  Sheol,  neither  wilt  Thou  suffer  Thine  holy  one  to 
see  corruption.  Thou  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life  ;  in 
Thy  presence  is  fulness  of  joy  ;  at  Thy  right  hand  there 
are  pleasures  for  evermore." 

That  connection  teaches  us  that  the  measure  in  which  a 
man  feels  his  true  possession  of  God  here  and  now,  is  the 
measure  in  which  his  faith  rises  triumphant  over  the 
darkness  of  the  grave,  and  grasps,  with  unfaltering  con- 
fidence, the  conviction  of  an  immortal  life.  The  more  we 
know  that  God  is  our  portion  and  our  treasure,  the  more 
sure,  and  calmly  sure,  we  shall  be  that  a  thing  like  death 
cannot  touch  a  thing  like  that,  that  the  mere  physical  fact 
is  far  too  small  and  insignificant  a  fact  to  have  any  power 
in  such  a  region  as  that ;  that  death  can  no  more  affect  a 
man's  relation  to  God,  Whom  he  has  learned  to  love  and 
trust,  than  you  can  cut  thought  or  feeling  with  a 
knife.  The  two  belong  to  two  different  regions.  Thus 
we  have  here  the  Old  Testament  faith  in  immortality 
shaping  itself  out  of  the  Old  Testament  enjoyment  of  com- 
munion with  God,  with  a  present  God.  And  you  will 
find  the  very  same  process  of  thought  in  that  seventy- 
third  Psalm,  which  stands  in  some  respects  side  by  side 
■with  this  one  as  containing  the  height  of  mystical  devo- 
tion, joined  with  a  very  clear  utterance  of  the  faith  iu 
immortality  :— "  Whom  have  I  in  Heaven  but  Thee,  and 
there  is  none  upon  earth  that  I  desire  beside  Thee  1   Thou 


MAN'S  TRUE  TREASURE  IN  GOD.  215 

wilt  gnide  me  with  Thy  counsel,  and  afterwards  receive 
me  to  glory." 

So  Death  himself  cannot  touch  the  heritage  of  the  man 
whose  heritage  is  the  Lord.  And  his  ministry  is  not  to 
rob  us  of  our  treasures  as  he  robs  men  of  all  treasures 
besides  (for  "  their  glory  shall  not  descend  after  them  "), 
but  to  give  us  instead  of  the  "  earnest  of  the  inheritance," 
— the  bit  of  turf  by  which  we  take  possession  of  the  estate — 
the  broad  land  in  all  the  amplitude  of  its  sweep,  into  our 
perpetual  possession.  "  Thou  maintainest  my  lot."  Neither 
death  nor  life  shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord  I 

IlL — And  then  the  last  thought  here  is  that  he  who 
thus  elects  to  find  his  treasure  and  delight  in  God  is  satis- 
fied with  his  choice.  "  The  lines  " — the  measuring  cord 
by  which  the  estate  was  parted  off  and  determined — "  are 
fallen,  in  pleasant  places  ;  yea  I " — not  as  our  Bible  has  it, 
merely  "  I  have  a  goodly  heritage,"  patting  emphasis  on 
the  fact  of  possession,  but^ — '*  the  heritage  is  goodly  to  me," 
putting  emphasis  on  the  fact  of  subjective  satisfaction 
with  it. 

I  have  no  time  to  dwell  upon  the  thoughts  that  spring 
from  these  words.  Take  them  in  the  barest  outline.  No 
man  that  makes  the  worse  choice  of  earth  instead  of  God, 
ever,  in  the  retro:^pect,  said  : — "  I  have  a  goodly  heritage.  " 
One  of  the  later  Roman  Emperors,  who  was  one  of  the 
best  of  them,  said,  when  he  was  dying  : — "  I  have  been 
everything,  and  it  profits  me  nothing."  No  creature  can 
satisfy  your  whole  nature.  Portions  of  it  may  be  fed 
with  their  appi'opriate  satisfaction,  but  as  long  as  we  feed 
on  the  things  of  earth  there  will  always  be  part  of  our 
being  like  an  unfed  ti^'er  in  a  menagerie,  growling  for  its 
prey,  ^vhilst  its  fellows  are  satisfied  for  the  moment. 
You  can  no  more  give  your  heart  rest  and  blessedness  by 
pitching  worldly   things  into  it  than  they  could  fill  up 


216  MAN'S  TRUE  TREASURE   IN   GOD. 

Chat  Moss,  when  they  made  the  first  Liverpool  and  Man- 
chester Railway,  by  throwing  in  cartloads  of  earth.  The 
bog  swallowed  them  and  was  none  the  nearer  being  filled. 

No  man  that  takes  the  world  for  his  portion  ever  said, 
"  The  lines  are  fallen  to  me  in  pleasant  places."  For  the 
make  of  your  soul  as  plainly  cries  out  "  God  I  "  as  a  fish's 
fins  declare  that  the  sea  is  its  element,  or  a  bird's  wings 
mark  it  out  as  meant  to  soar.  Man  and  God  fit  each  other 
like  the  two  halves  of  a  tally.  You  will  never  get  rest  nor 
satisfaction,  and  yon  will  never  be  able  to  look  at  the  past 
with  thankfulness,  nor  at  the  present  with  repose  ;  nor 
into  the  future  with  hope,  unless  you  can  say,  ''  God  is 
the  strength  of  my  heart,  and  my  portion  for  ever." 
But  oh  I  if  you  do,  then  you  have  a  goodly  heritage,  a 
heritage  of  still  satisfaction,  a  heritage  which  suits,  and 
gratifies,  and  expands  all  the  powers  of  a  man's  nature,  and 
makes  him  ever  capable  of  larger  and  larger  possessions  of 
a  God  Who  ever  gives  more  than  we  can  receive,  that  the 
overplus  may  draw  us  to  further  desire,  aud  the  further 
desire  may  more  fully  be  satisfied. 

The  one,  true,  pure,  abiding  joy  is  to  hold  fellowship 
with  God  and  to  live  in  His  love.  The  secret  of  all  our 
unrest  is  the  going  out  of  our  desires  after  earthly  things. 
They  fly  forth  from  our  hearts  like  Noah's  raven,  and 
nowhere  amid  all  the  weltering  flood  can  find  a  resting- 
place.  The  secret  of  satisfied  repose  is  to  set  our  afl^ections 
thoroughly  on  God.  Then  our  wearied  hearts,  like  Noah's 
dove  returning  to  its  rest,  will  fold  their  wings  and  nestle 
fast  by  the  throne  of  God.  "  All  the  happiness  of  this 
life,"  said  William  Law,  "  is  but  trying  to  quench  thirst 
out  of  golden  emjjty  cups."  But  if  we  will  take  the  Lord 
for  "  the  portion  of  our  cup,"  we  shall  never  thirst. 

Let  me  beseech  you  to  choose  God  in  Christ  for  your 
supreme  good  and  highest  portion  ;  and  having  chosen,  to . 
cleave  to  your  choice.     So  shall  you  enter  on  possession  of 


MAN'S  TRUE  TRBABURB  IN  GOD.  217 

good  that  truly  shall  be  yours,  even  "  that  good  part,  which 
shall  not  be  taken  away  from  you." 

And,  lastly,  remember  that  if  you  would  have  God,  yon 
must  take  Christ.  He  is  the  true  Joshua,  who  puts  us  in 
possession  of  the  inheritance.  He  brings  God  to  you — to 
your  knowledge,  to  your  love,  to  your  will.  He  brings 
you  to  God,  making  it  possible  for  your  poor  sinful  soul:3 
to  enter  His  presence  by  His  blood  ;  and  for  your  spirits 
to  possess  that  Divine  Guest.  "He  that  hath  the  Son, 
hath  the  Father  "  ;  and  if  you  trust  your  souls  to  Him  that 
died  for  you,  and  cling  to  Him  as  your  delight  and  your 
joy,  you  will  find  that  both  the  Father  and  the  Son  come 
to  you  and  make  Their  home  in  you.  Through  Christ  the 
Son,  you  will  receive  power  to  become  sons  of  God,  and  if 
children,  then  heirs,  heire  of  God,  because  joint  heirs  with 
Chrigt 


GOD^S  TRUE  TREASUEE  IN  MAN. 


8EKM0N  XVIL 


OOD'S  TRUE  TREASURE   US  MAH. 


"  The  Lord's  portion  is  His  people  ;  Jacob  is  the  lot  of  His  inheritance."    Deat.  xrxlL  % 
"Jesus  Christ  (Who)  gave  Himself  for  us,  that  He  might  redeem  as  from  all  iniquity 
Mid  purify  unto  Himself  a  peculiar  people."    Titus  ii.  14. 


In  my  last  sermon  I  dealt  with  the  thought  that  man*s 
trne  treasure  is  in  God.  My  text  then,  was  :  "  The  Lord 
is  the  portion  of  my  inheritance  ;  Thou  maintainest  my 
lot,"  and  the  following  words.  You  observe  the  corres- 
pondence between  these  words  and  those  of  my  first  text : 
"  The  Lord's  portion  is  His  people  ;  Jacob  is  the  lot  of 
His  inheritance."  The  correspondence  in  the  original  is 
not  quite  so  marked  as  it  is  in  our  Authorised  Version, 
but  still  the  idea  in  the  two  passages  is  the  same. 

You  may  remember  that  I  said  then  that  persons  could 
possess  persons  only  by  love,  sympathy,  and  communion. 
From  that  it  follows  that  the  possession  must  be  mutual ;  or 
in  other  words,  that  only  he  can  say  :  "  Thou  art  mine,"  who 
can  say,  "  I  am  thine."  And  so  to  possess  God  and  to  be 
possessed  by  God  are  but  two  ways  of  putting  the  same  fact. 
**  The  Lord  is  the  portion  of  His  people,"  and  *'  The  Lord's 
portion  is  His  people,"  are  the  same  truth  in  a  doable  form. 


222  god's  true  treasure  in  man. 

Then  my  second  text  clearly  qnotes  the  well-known 
utterance  that  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  national  life 
of  Israel :  "  Ye  shall  be  unto  me  a  peculiar  treasure  above 
all  people,"  and  claims  that  privilege,  like  all  Israers 
privileges,  for  the  Christian  Church.  In  like  manner 
Peter  (1,  ii.  9)  quotes  the  same  words  "  a  peculiar  people,'* 
as  properly  applying  to  Christians.  I  need  scarcely  re- 
mind you  that  "peculiar"  here  is  used  in  its  proper 
original  sense  of  "  belonging  to,"  or,  as  the  Revised  Ver- 
sion gives  it,  "  a  people  for  God's  own  possession,"  and 
has  no  trace  of  the  modern  signification  of  "singular." 
Similarly  we  find  Paul  in  His  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians 
giving  both  sides  of  the  idea  of  the  inheritance,  in  intent- 
ional juxtaposition,  when  he  speaks  (i.  14)  of  the  "  earnest 
of  our  inheritance  until  the  redemption  of  God's  own 
possession."  In  the  words  before  us  we  have  the  same 
idea  ;  and  this  text  tells  us  besides  how  Christ,  the  revealer 
of  God,  wins  men  for  Himself,  and  what  manner  of  men 
they  must  be  whom  He  counts  as  His. 

Therefore  there  are,  as  I  take  it,  three  things  to  be 
spoken  about  now.  First,  God  has  a  special  ownership  in 
some  people.  Second,  God  owns  these  people  because  He 
has  given  Himself  to  them.  Third,  God  possesses,  and  is 
posssessed  by.  His  inheritance,  that  He  may  give  and 
receive  services  of  love.  Or,  in  briefer  words,  I  have  to 
speak  about  this  wonderful  thought  of  a  special  Divine 
ownership,  what  it  rests  upon,  and  what  it  involves. 

Now,  first,  "  the  Lord's  portion  is  His  people  ;  Jacob  is 
the  lot  of  His  inheritance."  Put  side  by  side  with  that 
other  words  of  the  Old  Testament  :  "  All  souls  are  Mine," 
or  the  utterance  of  the  Hundredth  Psalm  rightly  trans- 
lated : — "  It  is  He  that  hath  made  us,  and  to  Him  we 
belong."  There  is  a  right  of  ownership  and  possession  in- 
herent in  the  very  relation  of  Creator  and  creature,  so 
as  that    the    Being  made  is  whoUy  and  altogether  at 


god's  trub  treasure  in  man.  223 

the  disposal,  and  is  the  property  of  Him  that  makes  him. 

But  is  that  enough  for  God's  heart  ?  Is  that  worth  calling 
ownership  at  all  ?  An  arbitrary  tyrant  in  an  unconstitu- 
tional kingdom,  or  a  slave-owner,  may  have  the  most 
absolute  right  of  property  over  his  subject  or  his  slave ; 
may  have  the  right  of  entire  disposal  of  all  his  industry, 
of  the  profit  of  all  his  labour,  may  be  able  to  do  anything 
he  likes  with  him,  may  have  the  power  of  life  and  death  ; 
but  such  ownership  is  only  of  the  husk  and  case  of  a  man. 
The  man  himself  may  be  free,  and  may  smile  at  the  claim 
of  possession.  "They  may  oum  the  body,  and  after 
that  they  have  no  more  that  they  can  do."  That  kind  of 
authority  and  ownership,  absolute  and  utter,  to  the  point 
of  death,  may  satisfy  a  tyrant  or  a  slave-driver  :  it  does  not 
satisfy  the  loving  heart  of  God.  It  is  not  real  possession 
at  all.  In  what  sense  did  Nero  own  Paul  when  he  shut 
him  up  in  prison,  and  cut  his  head  off  ?  Does  the  slave- 
owner own  the  man  that  he  whips  within  an  inch  of  his 
life,  and  who  dare  not  do  anything  without  his  permission  ? 
Does  God  in  any  sense  that  corresponds  with  the  yearning 
of  infinite  love,  own  the  men  that  reluctantly  obey  Him, 
and  are  simply,  as  it  were,  tools  in  His  hands  ?  He  covets 
and  longs  for  a  deeper  relationship  and  tenderer  ties,  and 
though  all  creatures  are  His,  and  all  men  are  His  servants 
and  His  possession,  yet,  like  certain  regiments  in  our  own 
British  army,  there  are  some  who  have  the  right  to  bear  in 
a  special  manner  on  their  uniform  and  on  their  banners 
the  emblazonment,  "The  King's  Own."  "The  Lord's 
portion  is  His  people  ;  Jacob  is  the  lot  of  His  inheritance." 

Well  then,  the  next  thought  is  that  the  special  relation- 
ship of  possession  is  constituted  by  mutual  love.  I  said  at  the 
beginning  of  these  remarks  that  the  only  ways  by 
which  spiritual  beings  can  possess  each  other  are  by  love, 
sympathy,  and  communion,  and  that  these  must  necessarily 
be  mutual.     We  have  a  perfect  right  to  apply  the  human 


224  GOD'S  TRUE  TREASURE  IN  MAN. 

analogy  here  ;  in  fact  we  are  bound  to  do  it  if  we  would 
rightly  understand  such  words  as  those  of  my  text ;  and  it 
just  leads  us  to  this,  that  the  one  thing  whereby  God 
reckons  that  He  possesses  a  man  at  all  is  by  His  love 
falling  upon  that  man's  heart  and  soaking  into  it ;  and  by 
the  springing  up  in  the  heart  of  a  corresponding  affection. 
The  men  who  welcome  the  Divine  love  that  goes  through 
the  whole  world,  "seeking  such  to  worship  it,"  and  to 
trust  it,  and  to  be  its  treasure  and  who  therefore,  lovingly 
yield  to  the  loving  Divine  will,  and  take  it  for  their  law  ; 
— these  are  the  men  whom  He  regards  as  His  portion  and 
the  lot  of  His  inheritance.  So  "  God  is  mine,"  "  I  am 
God's,"  are  two  sides  of  one  truth  ;  '*  I  possess  Him  "  and 
"  I  am  possessed  by  Him "  are  but  the  statement  of  one 
fact  expressed  from  two  points  of  view.  In  the  one  case 
you  look  upon  it  from  above,  in  the  other  case  you  look 
upon  it  from  beneath.  All  the  sweet  commerce  of  mutual 
surrender  and  possession  which  makes  the  joy  of  our 
hearts,  in  friendship  and  in  domestic  life,  we  have  the 
right  to  lift  up  into  this  loftier  region,  and  find  in  it  the 
best  teaching  of  what  makes  the  special  bond  of  mutual 
possession  between  God  and  man. 

Deep  words  of  Scripture  point  in  that  direction.  Those 
parables  of  our  Lord's, — the  lost  sheep,  the  lost  coin,  the 
lost  son,  in  their  infinite  beauty,  whilst  they  contain  a 
great  deal  besides  this,  do  contain  this  in  their  several 
ways.  The  money,  the  animal,  the  man,  belong  to  the 
woman  of  the  house,  to  the  shepherd,  to  the  father.  Each 
is  lost  in  a  different  fashion,  but  the  most  clear  revelation 
is  given  in  the  last  parable  of  the  three,  which  explains 
the  other  two.  The  son  was  "  lost "  when  he  did  not  love 
the  father,  and  he  was  "  found "  by  the  father  when  he 
returned  the  yearning  of  the  father's  heart. 

And  so,  dear  brethren,  it  ever  is  ;  the  one  thing  that 
knits  men  to  God  is  that  the  silken  bond  of  love  let  down 


god's  true  treasure  in  man.  225 

from  the  Heaven  should  by  our  own  hand  be  wrapped 
round  our  own  hearts,  and  then  we  are  united  to  Him. 
We  are  His  and  He  is  ours  by  the  same  double  action  ; 
His  love  manifested  by  Him  and  His  love  received  by  us. 

Now  there  is  nothing  in  all  that  of  favouritism.  The 
declaration  that  there  are  people  who  have  a  special  rela- 
tionship to  the  Divine  heart  may  be  so  stated  as  to  have  a 
very  ugly  look,  and  it  often  has  been  so  stated  as  to  be 
nothing  more  than  self-complacent  Pharisaism,  which 
values  a  privilege  principally  because  its  possession  is  an 
insult  to  somebody  else  who  has  not  it. 

There  has  been  plenty  of  Christianity  of  that  sort  in  the 
world,  but  rightly  looked  at  there  is  nothing  of  it  in  the 
thoughts  of  these  texts.  There  is  only  this  :  it  cannot  but 
be  that  men  who  yield  to  God  and  love  Him,  and  try  to 
live  near  Him  and  do  righteousness,  are  His,  in  a  manner 
that  those,  who  steel  themselves  against  Him  and  turn 
away  from  Him,  are  not.  It  should  be  joy  to  believe  that 
whilst  all  creatures  have  a  place  in  His  heart,  and  all  His 
creatures  are  flooded  with  His  benefits,  and  get  as  much 
of  Him,  as  ever  they  can  hold,  the  men  who  recognise  the 
source  of  their  blessing,  and  turn  to  it  with  grateful  hearts, 
are  nearer  Him  than  those  that  do  not  do  so.  Let  us  take 
care,  lest  for  the  sake  of  seeming  to  preserve  the  impartial- 
ity of  His  love,  we  have  destroyed  all  in  Him  that  makes 
His  love  worth  having.  If  to  Him  the  good  and  the 
bad,  the  men  that  fear  Him  and  the  men  thiit  fear  Him 
not,  are  equally  satisfactory  and  in  the  same  manner  the 
objects  of  an  equal  love,  then  He  is  not  a  God  that  has 
pleasure  in  righteousness ;  and  if  He  is  not  a  God  that  has 
pleasure  in  righteousness,  He  is  not  a  God  for  me  to  trust 
to.  We  are  not  giving  countenance  to  the  notion  that  God 
has  any  step-children,  any  petted  members  of  His  family, 
when  we  cleave  to  this  truth  that  they  that  have  wel- 
comed His  love  into  their  hearts  are  dearer  to  Him  than 
those  that  haye  closed  the  door  against  it. 


god's  true  treasure  in  man. 

And  there  is  one  more  point  here  about  this  matter  of 
ownership  on  which  I  dwell  for  a  moment,  namely,  that 
this  conception  of  certain  men  being  in  a  special  sense 
God's  possession  and  inheritance  means  also  that  He  has  a 
special  delight  in,  and  lofty  appreciation  of  them. 

All  this  material  creation  exists  for  the  sake  of  growing 
good  men  and  women.  That  is  the  use  of  the  things  that 
are  seen  and  temporal ;  they  are  like  greenhouses  built  for 
the  Great  Gardener's  use  in  striking  and  furthering  the 
growth  of  His  plants  ;  and  when  He  has  got  the  plants  He 
has  got  what  He  wanted,  and  you  may  pull  the  greenhouse 
down  if  you  choose.  So  God  estimates,  and  teaches 
us  to  estimate,  the  relative  value  and  greatness  of  the 
material  and  the  spiritual  in  this  fashion,  that  He  tells 
us  in  effect  that  all  these  magnificences  and  magnitudes 
round  us  are  small  and  vulgar  as  compared  with  this — a 
heart  in  which  wisdom  and  Divine  truth  and  the  love  and 
likeness  of  God  have  attained  to  some  tolerable  measure 
of  maturity  and  of  strength.  "  These  are  His  jewels,"  as 
the  Roman  matron  said  about  her  two  boys.  The  Great 
Father  looks  upon  the  men  that  love  Him  as  His  jewels ; 
and  having  got  the  jewels,  the  rock  in  which  they  were 
imbedded  and  preserved  may  be  crushed  when  you  like. 
"  They  shall  be  Mine,"  said  the  Lord,  "  My  treasures,  in 
that  day  which  I  make." 

And  so,  my  brother,  all  the  insignificance  of  man,  as 
compared  with  the  magnitude  and  duration  of  the  universe, 
need  not  stagger  our  faith  that  the  divinest  thing  in  the 
universe  is  a  heart  that  has  learnt  to  love  God  and  aspire 
after  Him  ;  and  should  but  increase  our  wonder  and  our 
gratitude,  for  that  Christ  who  has  been  "  mindful  of  man, 
and  has  visited  the  son  of  man,"  in  order  that  He  might 
give  Himself  for  men,  and  so  might  win  men  for  Himself. 
II. — That  brings  me,  and  very  briefly,  to  the  other  points 
that  I  desire  to  deal  with  this  morning.     The  second  one 


god's  true  treasure  in  man.  227 

which  is  BUggested  to  us  from  my  second  text  in  the  Epistle 
to  Titus  is  that  God  owns  men  because  God  has  given  Him- 
self to  man. 

The  Apostle  puts  it  very  strongly  In  the  Epistle  to 
Titus  :  "  The  glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  Who  gave  Himself  for  us  " — "  that 
He  might  purify  unto  Himself  ^people  for  a  possession,*^ 

Israel,  according  to  one  metaphor,  was  God's  son,  be- 
gotten by  that  great  redeeming  act  of  deliverance  from 
the  captivity  of  Egypt.  (Deut.  xxxii.  6-19.)  According 
to  another  metaphor,  Israel  was  God's  bride,  wooed  and 
won  for  His  own  by  that  same  act.  Both  of  which  just 
point  to  the  thought  that  in  order  to  get  man  for 
His  own  He  has  to  give  Himself  to  man.  The  very 
height  and  sublimity  of  that  truth  is  found  in  the 
Christian  fact  which  the  Apostle  points  to  here.  We 
need  not  depart  from  human  analogies  here  either.  Christ 
gave  Himself  to  us  that  He  might  get  us  for  Himself. 
Absolute  possession  of  others  is  only  possible  at  the  price 
of  absolute  surrender  to  them.  No  human  heart  ever  gave 
itself  away  unless  it  was  convinced  that  the  heart  to  which 
it  gave  itself  had  given  itself  to  it. 

On  the  lower  levels  of  human  experience  the  only  thing 
that  binds  one  man  to  another  in  utter  submission  is  the 
conviction  that  that  other  has  given  himself  in  absolute 
sacrifice  for  him.  A  doctor  goes  into  the  wards  of  an 
hospital  with  his  life  in  his  hands,  and  because  he  does  he 
wins  the  respect,  confidence,  and  affection  of  all  that  are 
there.  You  cannot  buy  a  heart  with  anything  less  than  a 
heart.  In  the  barter  of  the  world  it  is  not  skin  for  skin, 
but  it  is  self  for  self.  If  you  want  to  own  me,  you  must  give 
yourself  altogether  to  me  ;  and  the  measure  in  which 
teachers,  and  guides,  and  preachers  and  philanthropists  of 
all  sorts  make  conquests  of  men  is  the  measure  in  which 
ihey  make  themselves  sacrifices  for  meru 

Q2 


228  GOD'S  TRUE   TREASURE  IN   MAN. 

All  that  is  true,  and  is  lifted  to  its  superlative  truth,  in 
the  great  central  fact  of  the  Christian  faith.  But  there  is 
more  than  human  analogy  here.  Christ  is  not  only  self- 
sacrifice  in  the  sense  of  surrender,  but  He  is  sacrifice  in 
the  sense  of  giving  Himself  for  our  propitiation  and  for- 
giveness. He  has  not  only  given  Himself  to  us,  He  has 
given  Himself  for  us.  And  there,  and  on  that,  is  builded, 
and  on  that  alone  has  He  a  right  to  build,  or  have  we  a 
right  to  yield,  Hifl  claim  of  absolute  authority  over  each 
of  us. 

He  has  died  for  us,  therefore  the  springs  of  onr  life  are 
at  His  disposal ;  and  the  strongest  motives  which  can 
sway  our  wills  are  set  in  motion  by  His  touch.  His  death, 
says  this  text,  redeems  us  from  iniquity  and  purifies  us. 
That  points  to  its  power  in  delivering  us  from  the  service 
and  practice  of  sin.  He  buys  us  from  the  despot  whose 
slaves  we  were,  and  makes  us  His  own  in  the  hatred  of 
evil  and  the  doing  of  righteousness.  Moved  by  His  death, 
we  become  capable  of  heroisms  and  martyrdoms  of  devo- 
tion to  Him.  Brethren  !  It  is  only  as  that  self-sacrificing 
love  touches  us,  which  died  for  our  sins  upon  the  Crosp, 
that  the  diabolical  chain  of  selfishness  shall  be  broken 
from  our  affections  and  our  wills,  and  we  shall  be  led  "  into 
a  large  place  "  of  glad  surrender  of  ourselves  to  the  sweet- 
ness and  the  gentle  authority  of  His  omnipotent  love. 

III. — The  last  thought  which  I  suggest  is  the  issues  to 
which  the  mutual  possession  points.  God  owns  men,  and  is 
owned  by  them,  in  order  that  there  may  be  a  giving  and 
receiving  of  mutual  services  of  love. 

"  The  Lord's  portion  is  His  people."  That  in  the  Old 
Testament  is  always  laid  as  the  foundation  of  certain 
obligations  under  which  Ht  has  come,  and  which  He  will 
abundantly  discharge.  What  is  a  great  landlord  expected 
to  do  to  his  estate  ?  "  What  ought  I  to  have  done  to  my 
Tineyard  ?  "  the  Divine  Proprietor  asks  through  the  mouth 


GOD'S  TRUi:   TREASURE   IN   MAW.  229 

of  Hie  servant  the  prophet.  He  ought  to  till  it,  He  onght 
not  to  starve  it ;  He  ought  to  fence  it ;  He  ought  to  cast  a 
wall  about  it ;  He  ought  to  reap  the  fruits.  And  He  does 
all  that  for  His  inheritance.  God's  honour  is  concerned  in 
His  portion  not  being  waste.  It  is  not  to  be  a  garden  of 
the  sluggard,  by  which  people  who  pass  can  see  the  thorns 
growing  there.  So  He  will  till  it,  He  will  plough  it,  He 
will  pick  out  the  weeds  ;  and  all  the  discipline  of  life  will 
come  to  ns  ;  and  the  ploughshare  will  be  driven  deep  into 
the  heart  that  "  the  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness"  may 
spring  up.  He  will  fence  His  vineyard.  Round  about 
His  inheritance  His  hand  will  be  cast ;  within  His  people 
His  spirit  will  dwell.  No  harm  shall  come  near  thee  if 
thy  love  is  given  to  Him.  Safe  and  untouched  by  evil, 
thou  Shalt  walk  if  thou  walk  with  God.  "  He  that  toucheth 
you  toucheth  the  apple  of  Mine  eye."  The  soul  that  trusts 
Him  He  accepts  in  pledge,  and  before  any  evil  can  befall 
it  He  must  be  overcome  by  a  stronger  than  He,  who  can 
take  away  from  Him  ,His  goods,  "  He  is  able  to  keep  that 
which  I  have  committed  unto  Him  against  that  day." 
"  The  Lord's  portion  is  His  people ;"  and  "  none  shall 
pluck  them  out  of  His  hand." 

And  on  the  other  side.  What  do  we  owe  to  God,  as  be- 
longing to  Him  ?  What  does  the  vineyard  owe  the 
husbandman  ?  Fruit.  We  are  His,  therefore  we  are 
bound  to  absolute  submission.  "  Ye  are  not  your  own.** 
Life,  circumstances,  occupations,  all ;  we  hold  them  at 
His  will.  We  have  no  more  right  of  property  in 
anything  than  a  slave  in  the  bad  old  days  had  in  his 
cabin  and  patch  of  ground.  They  belonged  to  the  master 
to  whom  he  belonged.  Let  us  recognise  our  stewardship, 
and  be  glad  to  know  ourselves  His,  and  all  events  and 
things  which  we  sometimes  think  ours,  to  be  His  also. 

We  are  His,  therefore  we  owe  absolute  trust.  The  slave 
has  at  least  this  blessing  in  his  lot,  that  he  need  have  no 


230  GOD'S  TRUE  TREASURE  IN   MAN. 

anxieties.  Nor  need  we.  We  belong  to  God,  and  He  will 
take  care  of  us.  A  rich  man's  horses  and  dogs  are  well  cared 
for,  and  our  Owner  will  not  leave  us  unheeded.  Our  well- 
being  involves  His  good  name.  Leave  anxious  thought  to 
masterless  hearts  which  have  to  front  the  world  with  nobody 
at  their  backs.    If  you  are  God's  you  will  be  looked  after. 

We  are  His,  therefore  we  are  bound  to  live  to  His  praise. 
That  is  the  conclusion  which  one  Old  Testament  passage 
draws.  "  This  people  have  I  formed  for  Myself ;  they 
shall  show  forth  My  praise."  (Isaiah  xliii.  21.)  The 
Apostle  Peter  quotes  these  words  immediately  after  those 
from  Exodus,  which  describe  Israel  as  "  a  people  for  God's 
own  possession" — "that  ye  should  show  forth  the  praises 
of  Him  who  hath  called  you."  Let  us  then  live  to  His 
glory,  and  remember  that  the  servants  of  the  king  are 
bound  to  stand  to  their  colours  amid  rebels,  and  that  they  who 
know  the  sweetness  of  possessing  God  and  the  blessedness 
of  yielding  to  His  supreme  control  should  tell  what  they 
have  found  of  His  goodness,  and  '*  show  forth  the  honour 
of  His  name,  and  make  His  praise  glorious."  Let  not  all 
the  magnificent  and  wonderful  expenditure  of  Divine 
longing  and  love  be  in  vain,  nor  run  off  your  hearts  like 
water  poured  upon  a  rock.  Surely  the  Sun's  flames  leap- 
ing leagues  high,  they  tell  us,  in  tongues  of  bui-ning  gas, 
must  melt  everything  that  is  near  them.  Shall  we  keep 
our  hearts  sullen  and  cold  before  such  a  fire  of  love  ? 
Surely  that  superb  and  wonderful  manifestation  of  the 
love  of  God  in  the  Cross  of  Christ  should  melt  into  running 
rivers  of  gratitude  all  the  ice  of  our  hearts. 

"  He  gave  Himself  for  me  I  "  Let  us  turn  to  Him  and 
say  :  "  Lo  1  I  give  myself  to  Thee.  Thou  art  mine.  Make 
me  Thine  by  the  constraint  of  Thy  love,  so  utterly,  and  so 
saturate  my  spirit  with  Thyself,  that  it  shall  not  only  be 
Thine,  but  in  a  very  deep  sense  it  shall  be  Thee,  and  that  it 
may  be  no  more  I  that  live,  but  Chi-ist  that  liveth  in  me.** 


THE    PRESENT    AND    THE    FUTURE    INHERIT- 
ANCE—GOD'S IN  US,  AND  OURS  IN  GOD. 


BERMON  XVIIL 


»HB   PRESENT  AND  THE   FUTURE  rNHBRITAWC»— 
OOD'S  IH  US  AND  DUES  IN  GOD. 

"  Which  la  the  earnert  of  oar  Inheritance  until  the  redemption  of  the  p«rnhe«l 

poeaesaion."    Ephos  1.  14. 

I  HAVE  chosen  these  words  this  morning,  and  ventured 
to  isolate  them  from  their  connection  because  of  their  bear- 
ing upon  the  subject  of  our  last  two  sermons.  You  will 
observe  that  the  Apostle  here  is  evidently  intending  to 
bring  together  the  two  aspects  of  the  reciprocal  possession 
of  God  by  believers,  and  of  believers  by  God,  which  has 
occupied  us  in  these  discourses. 

"  The  Holy  Spirit  of  promise,"  given  to  all  who  believe, 
iB  here  declared  to  dwell  in  and  to  seal  believers  as 
the  "  earnest "  of  their  "  inheritance  "  ;  whilst,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  sealing  is  declared  to  last  until— or,  as  seemB 
more  probably  the  rendering  of  the  proposition  here,  to  be 
done  with  a  view  unto — the  full  redemption  of  God's 
purchased  "  possession."  So  that  the  two  halves  of  the 
thought  are  intentionally  brought  together  in  these  words 
of  our  text.  And  about  both  of  them— God's  possession  of 
as  and  our  possession  of  Goil — it  is  asserted  or  implied,  that 


2M  THE  PRESENT  AND  FUTURE  INHERITANCB. 

they  are  partially  realised  here,  and  are  to  be  realised 
more  fully  in  the  future. 

An  "  earnest "  is  a  portion  of  the  estate  which  is  paid 
over  to  the  purchaser  on  the  completion  of  the  purchase, 
as  the  token  that  all  is  his  and  will  come  into  his  hands 
in  due  time.  Like  that  part  of  a  man's  wages  given  to 
him  in  advance  when  he  is  engaged  ;  like  the  shilling  put 
into  the  hand  of  a  recruit ;  like  the  half-crown  given  to 
the  farm-servant  at  the  hiring-fair ;  like  the  bit  of  turf 
that  in  some  old  ceremonials  used  to  be  solemnly  pre- 
sented to  the  sovereign  on  his  investiture  ;  it  is  a  portion 
of  the  whole  possession,  the  same  in  kind,  but  a  very  tiny 
portion,  which  yet  carries  with  it  the  acknowledgment  of 
ownership  and  the  assurance  of  full  possession. 

So,  says  my  text,  the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  "  earnest  of 
the  inheritance,"  a  small  portion  of  it  granted  to  us  to-day, 
and  the  pledge  that  all  shall  be  granted  in  the  future. 
And  the  same  idea  of  present  imperfection  is  suggested  in 
the  corresponding  clause,  which  speaks  about  God's  entire 
purchase  (for  such  is  the  emphasis  in  the  original)  of  His 
possession  as  also  a  thing  of  the  future. 

So  then  here  are  the  three  points  that  I  purpose  to 
consider  ;  first,  the  imperfect  present ;  second,  the  present, 
imperfect  as  it  is,  still  a  guarantee  and  pledge  of  the  future  ; 
and  lastly,  the  perfect  future  which  is  the  outcome  of  the 
imperfect  present. 

I. — First  a  word  about  this  imperfect  present,  which  is 
put  here  as  being  on  the  one  side  the  earnest  of  our  inheri- 
tance, and  on  the  other  side  as  being  God's  partial  acquisi- 
tion of  us  as  His  Possession. 

Now,  you  may  remember,  perhaps,  that  in  the  former 
sermons  I  said  that  we  possess  God  in  the  measure  in 
which  we  know  Him,  love  Him,  and  have  communion 
and  sympathy  with  Him.  These  things,  knowledge,  love, 
communion,   sympathy,   make  a  very  real  and  a  very 


THE    PRESENT    AND   FUTURE   INHEIRITANCE.       235 

precious  possession  of  God,  and  he  who  has  God  thus  has 
II im  as  truly,  though  not  as  perfectly,  as  the  angels  in 
Heaven  that  bow  before  His  throne. 

But  though  that  is  true,  there  is  yet  another  aspect  of 
this  possession  of  God  suggested  in  the  words  of  my  text. 
The  Holy  Spirit  of  promise  comes  to  every  man  that 
believes  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  enters  into  his  heart  and 
becomes  his.  That  is  the  truest  way  in  which  man  possesses 
God.  The  greatest  gift  that  my  faith  brings  down  to  me 
from  Heaven  is  the  gift  of  an  indwelling  Spirit — of  an 
indwelling  God.  For  the  Spirit  of  God  is  God.  He  that 
has  God  in  his  heart  by  the  dwelling  there,  in  mystic 
reality,  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  possesses  Him  as  truly  as  he 
possesses  love  or  memory,  imagination  or  hope. 

There  can  be  no  possession  deeper,  none  greater,  none 
more  real  than  the  possession  w^hich  every  one  of  us  may 
have  of  an  indwelling  God  for  our  life  and  our  peace.  It 
passes  all  human  analogy.  Love  gives  us  the  ownership, 
most  really  and  most  sweetly,  of  the  hearts  that  we  love  ; 
but  after  all  the  yearning  desires  for  union,  and  experience 
of  oneness  in  sympathy,  the  awful  wall  of  partition  be- 
tween spirits  remains.  Life  may,  and  death  must,  separate, 
but  he  that  has  God's  Divine  Spirit  with  him,  has  God  for 
the  life  of  his  life  and  the  soul  of  his  soul.  And  we 
possess  Him  when,  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  Spirit  of 
God  dwells  in  our  hearts. 

But  most  real  and  most  blessed  as  that  union  and  pes- 
session  is,  my  text  tells  us  it  is  incomplete. 

I  need  not  dwell  upon  that  in  order  to  prove  it ;  I  only 
want  to  apply  and  urge  the  truth  for  a  moment.  We  have 
an  Infinite  Spirit  to  dwell  with  us  ;  how  finite  and  little 
is  our  possession  of  it  1  The  Spirit  of  God  is  set  forth  in 
Scripture  under  the  symbol  of  "  a  rushing,  mighty  wind,*' 
and  you  and  I  say  that  we  are  Christ's,  and  that  we  have 
Him^      How  does  it  come,  then,  that  our  sails  flap  idly  on 


236         THE   PRESENT   AND  FUTURE   INHERITANCE. 

the  mast,  and  we  lie  becalmed,  and  making  next  to  no 
progress  ?  The  Spirit  of  God  is  set  forth  in  Scripture 
under  the  symbol  of  "  flaming  tongues  of  fire,"  and  you 
and  I  say  that  we  have  it ;  how  is  it,  then,  that  this  thick- 
ribbed  ice  is  round  our  hearts,  and  our  love  is  all  so  tepid  ? 
The  Spirit  of  God  is  set  forth  in  Scripture  under  the  sym- 
bol of  "rivers  of  water";  and  you  and  I  say  that  we 
possess  it.  How  is  it,  then,  that  so  much  of  our  hearts 
and  of  onr  natures  is  given  up  to  barrenness,  and  dryness, 
and  deadness  ?  Oh,  brethren,  with  an  Infinite  Spirit  for 
our  Guest  and  Indweller,  any  of  us  that  look  at  our  own 
hearts  must  feel  that  my  text  is  too  surely  true,  and  that 
the  present  possession  of  God  by  the  best  of  ns  is  but  a 
partial  and  incomplete  possession. 

And  the  same  facts  of  wavering  faith,  cold  affection, 
and  imperfect  consecration  which  show  how  little  we 
have  of  God,  show  likewise  how  little  God  has  of  us. 
We  say  that  we  are  His,  and  live  to  please  ourselves. 
We  profess  to  belong  to  another,  and  to  that  other  we 
render  fragments,  of  ourselves,  and  scarcely  even  frag- 
ments of  our  time  and  of  our  efforts.  His  !  and  yet  all 
day  long  never  thinking  of  Him.  His  I  and  yet  from  morn- 
ing till  night  never  refraining  from  a  thing  because  we 
know  it  is  contrary  to  His  will,  or  spurred  to  do  a  thing 
that  is  contrary  to  ours  because  we  know  it  is  His.  His  ! 
and  yet  we  wallow  in  selfishness.  His  I  and  yet  we  live 
Godless.  Christian  men  and  women  I  it  is  only  a  little 
corner  of  your  souls  that  really  belongs  to  God.  Alas, 
alas  I  for  the  imperfections  and  incompleteness  of  our 
possession  of  God,  of  Whom  w^e  hold  but  the  merest  shred, 
and  of  His  possession  of  us,  Who  has  conquered  such  a 
little  strip  of  the  whole  field  of  our  nature. 

Now,  do  not  forget  that  this  incompleteness  of  posses- 
sion, looked  at  in  both  aspects,  is  to  a  certain  extent 
inevitable  »ncl  must  go  with  ud  all  through  life.      And  bo 


THE  PRESENT   AND  FUTURE   INHBRITANCH.  237 

do  not  let  any  of  us  rush  precipitately  to  the  conclusion 
that  we  are  not  Christians  because  we  find  what  poor 
Christians  we  are.  Do  not  let  us  say — "  If  there  were 
any  reality  in  my  faith,  it  would  he,  not  a  dotted  line,  but 
one  continuous  and  unbroken."  Do  not  let  us  write  bitter 
things  against  ourselves,  because  we  find  that  we  have 
only  got  "  the  earnest  of  the  inheritance,"  and  that  the 
Inheritance  has  not  yet  come. 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  do  not  make  a  pillow  for  lazi- 
ness of  that  most  certain  truth,  nor,  because  there  must 
always  be  imperfections  in  the  Christian  career  here,  apply 
that  as  an  excuse  for  the  individual  instances  of  imper- 
fection as  they  crop  up.  You  know,  when  you  are  honest 
with  yourselves,  that  each  breach  of  continuity  in  your 
faith  and  obedience  might  have  been  prevented.  You 
know  that  there  was  no  inevitable  necessity  for  your  doing 
that  piece  of  badness  that  rises  in  your  memory  ;  that 
there  was  no  reason  that  could  not  have  been  overcome, 
for  any  failure  of  consecration  or  wavering  of  faith  or  act 
of  disobedience  and  rebellion  which  has  ever  marked  your 
course.  Granted,  that  imperfection  is  the  law,  but  also  remem- 
ber that  the  individual  instances  of  imperfection  are  to  be 
debited  not  to  law,  but  to  us,  and  are  not  to  be  lamented 
over  as  inevitable,  though  painful,  issues  of  our  condition, 
but  to  be  confessed  as  sins.  "  My  fault,  0  Lord  1  my  fault 
and  mine  only." 

Many  Christian  people  forget  that  if  our  present  condi- 
tion be,  as  it  certainly  is,  necessarily  imperfect,  it  ought 
also  to  be,  and  it  will  be,  if  there  be  any  vital  force  of 
Christian  principle  within  us,  constantly  and  indofiiiitely 
approximating  to  the  ideal  standard  of  perfection  that 
gleams  there  ahead  of  us.  Or,  to  put  it  int^.  plainer 
English,  if  you  have  life  you  will  grow.  If  there  be  any 
real  possession  of  the  inheritance,  it  will  be  like  the  roll- 
ing fences  that  they  used  to  have  in  certain  parts  of  the 


238  THE  PRESENT  AND  FUTURE  INHERIT  AJJCB. 

conntry,  -where  a  squatter  settled  himself  down  upon  a 
bit  of  a  royal  forest,  and  had  a  hedge  that  could  be  moved 
outwards  and  shifted  on  by  degrees  ;  till  from  having 
begun  with  a  little  bit  big  enough  for  a  cabbage  garden, 
he  ended  with  a  piece  big  enough  for  a  farm. 

And  that  is  what  we  are  always  to  do,  to  be  always 
acquiring,  "  adding  field  to  field  "  in  the  great  inheritance 
that  is  ours.  But  a  mournfully  large  number  of  professing 
Christians  have  lost  the  very  notion  of  progress;  and  con- 
tent themselves  with  saying  :  "  Oh  1  we  shall  always  be 
imperfect.  As  long  as  we  are  here  in  this  world  we  cannot 
make  ourselves  different."  No  I  you  cannot  make  your- 
selves perfect,  but  if  you  are  not  growing  at  all,  I  would 
pray  you  to  ask  yourselves  if  you  are  living  at  all.  Do 
not  be  content,  as  so  many  of  you  are,  to  be  like  invaders, 
who,  after  years  of  occupation,  are  unable  to  advance 
beyond  the  strip  of  shore  which  they  seized  at  first,  while 
all  the  interior  lies  unconquered  and  in  arms  against  them. 

So  remember  that  if  we  have  any  real  possession  of  God 
or  God  of  us,  it  will  not  only  be  an  imperfect  possession, 
but  an  imperfect  possession  daily  becoming  more  complete. 

II. — Now  turn  to  the  second  thought  here — that  this 
imperfect  present,  in  its  very  imperfection,  is  a  prophecy 
and  a  pledge  of  a  perfect  future.  The  "  earnest  of  our 
inheritance'*  points  on  to  the  full  "redemption  of  the 
purchased  possession." 

The  facts  of  Christian  experience  are  such  as  that  they 
inevitably  lead  up  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  a  life  be- 
yond. All  that  is  good  and  blessed  about  religion,  our  faith, 
the  joy  that  comes  from  our  faith,  the  sweetness  of  com- 
munion, the  aspiration  after  the  increase  of  fellowship  with 
Him  ;  all  these,  to  the  man  that  enjoys  them,  are  the  best 
proof  that  they  are  going  to  last  for  ever,  and  that  death  can 
have  no  power  over  them.  "  Like  thoughts  whose  very 
•weetness  yieldeth  proof  that  they  are  bom  for  immortalitv," 


THE  PRESENT   AND   FUTURE  INHERITANCE.         239 

To  love,  to  know,  to  reach  the  hands  out  through  the 
shows  of  time  and  sense,  and  to  grasp  an  unseen  reality 
that  lies  away  beyond,  is,  to  any  man  that  has  ever  expe- 
rienced the  emotion  and  done  the  thing,  one  of  the  strong- 
est of  all  demonstrations  that  nothing  belonging  to  this 
dusty  low  region  of  the  physical  can  touch  that  immortal 
aspiration  that  knits  him  to  God  ;  but  that  whatsoever  may 
befall  the  husk  and  shell  of  him,  his  faith,  his  love,  his 
obedience,  his  consecration,  are  eternal,  and  may  laugh  at 
death  and  the  grave.  And  I  believe  that  even  to  the  men 
who  have  not  that  experience,  the  fact  of  religious  emotion, 
the  fact  of  worship,  ought  to  be  one  of  the  best  demons- 
trations of  a  future  life. 

But  I  pass  that  with  these  simple  remarks,  and  touch 
another  thing  ;  the  very  incompleteness  of  our  possession 
of  God,  and  of  God's  possession  of  us,  points  onwards  to, 
and,  as  it  seems  to  me,  demands  a  future.  The  imperfec- 
tion, as  well  as  the  present  attainments  of  our  Christian 
experience,  proclaim  a  coming  time.  That  we  are  no 
better  than  we  are,  being  as  good  as  we  are,  seems  to  make 
it  inconceivable  that  this  evidently  half-done  work  is 
going  to  be  broken  off  short  at  the  side  of  the  grave. 

Here  is  a  certain  force  acting  in  a  man's  nature,  the 
power  of  God's  good  Spirit,  evidently  capable  of  producing 
effects  of  entire  transformation.  Such  being  the  cause, 
who,  looking  at  the  effects,  can  doubt  that  sometime  and 
somewhere  there  will  be  less  disproportion  between  the 
two  ?  The  engine  is  evidently  not  working  full  power. 
The  characters  of  Christians  at  the  best  are  so  inconsistent 
and  contradictory  that  they  are  evidently  only  in  the 
making.  It  is  clear  that  we  are  looking  at  unfinished 
work,  and  surely  the  great  Master  Builder  who  has  laid 
Buch  a  foundation-stone  tried  and  precious,  will  not  begin 
to  build  and  be  unable  to  finish.  Every  Christian  life,  at 
its  best  and  noblest,  shows,  as  it  were,  the  ground  plan 


240  THE  PRESENT   AND   FUTURE   INHBRITANOB. 

of  a  great  structure  partly  carried  out — a  bit  of  walling 
here,  vacancy  there,  girders  spanning  wide  spaces,  but 
gaping  for  a  roof,  a  chaos  and  a  confusion.  It  may  look 
a  thing  of  shreds  and  patches,  and  they  that  pass  by  the 
way  begin  to  mock.  But  the  very  fact  that  it  is  incom- 
plete prophesies  to  wise  men,  of  the  day  when  the 
teadstone  shall  be  brought  with  shouting,  and  the  flag 
hoisted  on  the  roof  tree.  Fools  and  children,  says  the 
proverb,  should  not  see  half-done  work — certainly  they 
should  not  judge  it. 

Wait  a  bit.  There  comes  a  time  when  tendencies  shall 
be  facts,  and  when  influences  shall  have  produced  their 
appropriate  effects  ;  and  when  all  that  is  partial  and  bro- 
ken shall  be  consummate  and  entire  in  the  Kingdom 
beyond  the  stars.  Wait  !  and  be  sure  that  the  good  and 
the  bad,  so  strangely  blended  in  Christian  experience,  are 
alike  charged  with  the  prophecy  of  a  glorious  and  perfect 
future. 

III. — Then,  lastly,  my  text  in  the  one  clause  asserts,  and 
in  the  other  implies,  that  the  future  is  the  perfecting  of 
the  present. 

The  "  earnest "  points  onwards  to  an  inheritance  the 
same  in  kind,  but  immensely  greater  in  degree.  The 
"redemption  of  the  possession"  is  a  somewhat  singular 
expression  ;  for  we  are  accustomed  to  regard  the  great  act 
of  redemption  as  already  past  in  the  sacrifice  of  Christ 
upon  the  Cross.  But  the  expression  is  employed  here,  as 
in  several  other  places,  to  express  not  so  much  the  act  of 
purchase,  the  paying  of  the  price  of  our  salvation,  which 
is  done  once  for  all  and  long  ago,  as  the  historical  working 
out  of  the  results  of  that  price  paid  in  the  entire  deliver- 
ance of  the  whole  nature  of  man  from  every  form  of  cap- 
tivity to  anything  that  would  prevent  his  full  possession 
by  God. 

A  very  essential  part  of  that  entire  deliverance  is  that 


THE  PRESENT  AND   FUTURE   INHERITANCH  243 

which  the  Apostle  calls  the  redemption  of  the  body  (Rom. 
viii,  23),  and  which  he  there  puts  in  contrast  with  the 
present  possession  of  the  ^'first-fruits  of  the  Spirit,"  as 
here  the  redemption  is  contrasted  with  the  earnest  of  the 
Spirit.  That  full  deliverance  takes  place,  according  to 
this  Epistle  (iv.  30)  at  a  definite  future  period,  called 
therefore,  "  the  day  of  redemption,"  which  is,  I  suppose, 
the  time  when  the  whole  man,  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  in 
the  Resurrection-glory  shall  be  delivered  from  every  form 
of  evil,  limitation,  and  sin  ;  and  shall  be  lifted  up  into  the 
full  light  and  knowledge  of  God.  Tlien  God  will  possess 
men,  when  the  whole  man  is  capable  of  holding  or 
possessing  God.  Then  redemption  will  be  completed  in 
effect,  which  was  completed  in  cause  and  in  purchase 
when  He  said  :  "  It  is  finished,"  and  bowed  His  head  and 
died. 

Time  will  not  allow  me  to  dwell  upon  the  many 
thoughts  involved  here.  One  is  that  the  main  hope  and 
glory  of  that  future  is  the  perfect  possession  of  and  by 
God. 

"  We  shall  know  even  as  we  are  known."  *'  Through  a 
glass  darkly,  but  then  face  to  face,"  says  Paul,  suggesting 
great  changes  in  the  degree  of  our  knowledge  of,  and 
friendly  communion  with,  God,  but  also  seeming  to  imply 
some  unknown  changes  in  the  manner  of  our  beholding, 
which  may  be  connected  with  the  new  powers  of  that 
"body  of  glory  "  like  our  Lord's  which  will  then  be  ours. 
It  is  quite  conceivable  that  the  physical  universe  may 
have  qualities  as  real  as  light  and  heat,  and  scent  and 
sound,  which  we  could  appreciate  if  we  had  other  senses 
appropriate,  as  we  have  sight  and  touch,  and  smell  and 
hearing.  And  so  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  when  clothed 
upon  with  our  "  house  which  is  from  Heaven,"  which  will 
have  a  great  many  more  windows  in  it  than  the  earthly 
house  of  this  tabernacle,  which  is  built  for  stormy  weather, 

B 


242  THE  PRESENT  AND  FUTURE  LNHERITANOB. 

there  will  be  sides  and  aspects  of  the  Divine  nature  that 
we  do  not  know  anything  about  to-day  which  shall  be 
communicable  and  communicated  to  us. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  a  deeper  knowledge,  a  fixed  love,  an 
unbroken  communion,  with  all  distractions  and  interrup- 
tions swept  clean  away  for  ever,  so  that  we  shall  dwell  for 
evermore  in  the  House  of  the  Lord,  these  are  the  plain 
elements  which  make  the  very  Heaven  of  heavens,  and 
which  ought  to  make  the  joy  of  our  hope.  In  the  measure 
in  which  we  know  and  love  Him,  in  that  measure  shall 
we  be  known  and  loved  by  Him.  He  and  we  shall  be  so 
interwoven  as  that  we  shall  be  inseparable.  We  shall 
cleave  to  God  and  God  shall  cleave  to  ub. 

Oh  I  how  small  and  insignificant  all  other  notions  of  a 
future  life  are  as  compared  with  that  I  The  accidents  of 
locality  and  circumstance  should  ever  be  kept  subordinate 
in  the  pictures  which  imagination  may  draw  of  what  is 
beheld  through  "  the  gates  ajar  "  by  "  little  pilgrims  in  the 
unseen."  The  representations  which  seem  to  aim  at 
making  another  world  as  like  this  one  as  may  be,  dwarf 
its  greatness,  and  tend  to  obscure  the  conditions  of  entering 
into  its  rest.  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be  " 
is  as  much  a  revelation  as  *'  When  He  shall  appear  we  shall 
be  like  Him."  As  a  great  painter  concentrates  finish  and 
light  on  the  face  of  his  sitter,  and  purposely  keeps  the 
rest  of  the  picture  slight,  there  is  one  face  that  should 
fill  the  dim,  dark  curtain  of  the  future — the  face  of  Christ, 
and  all  else  may  be  thrown  in  in  mere  sketchy  outline.  We 
know  that  future  chiefly  by  negations  and  by  symbols, 
and  the  one  positive  fact  is  that  we  shall  have  Him  and 
He  will  possess  ns.  It  is  enough  for  the  disciple  that  he 
be  as,  and  that  he  be  with  and  have,  his  Master. 

It  is  a  solemn  thought  that  this  ultimate  perfect  posseB- 
Bion  of  and  by  God  is  evolved  from  a  germ  which  must 
be  planted  now  if  it  is  to  flourish  there.     **  The  child  is 


THB  PRESENT  AND   FUTURE   INHERITANCE.         243 

father  of  the  man."  Every  present  is  the  result  of  all  the 
past ;  every  future  will  be  the  result  of  the  past  and  the 
present.  Everybody  admits  that  about  this  lif e^  but  there 
are  some  of  us  that  seem  to  forget  it  with  regard  to  another 
world. 

We  know  too  little  of  the  effect  that  is  produced  upon 
men  by  the  change  of  death  to  dogmatise  ;  but  one  may  be 
quite  sure  that  the  law  of  continuity  will  go  on  into  the 
other  world.  Or,  to  put  it  into  plainer  English,  a  man  on 
the  other  side  of  the  grave  will  be  the  same  as  he  was  on 
this  side.  The  line  will  run  straight  on  ;  it  may  be  slightly 
refracted  by  passing  from  an  atmosphere  of  one  density  to 
another  of  a  diJierent,  but  it  will  be  very  slightly.  The 
main  direction  will  be  the  same. 

What  is  there  in  death  that  can  change  a  man's  will  f 
I  can  fancy  death  making  an  idiot  wise,  because  idiocy 
comes  from  physical  causes.  I  can  fancy  death  giving 
people  altogether  dilTerent  notions  of  the  folly  of  sin  ;  but 
I  do  not  know  anything  in  the  physical  fact  of  death,  or 
in  the  accompanying  alterations  that  it  produces  upon 
spiritual  consciousness,  in  so  far  as  they  are  known  to  us, 
that  can  alter  the  dominant  bias  and  set  of  a  man's  nature. 
It  seems  to  me  more  likely  that  it  will  intensify  that  domi- 
nant bias,  whatever  it  is  ;  that  good  men  will  become 
better,  and  bad  men  worse  when  the  limitations  of  incom- 
plete organs  are  gone.  At  all  events,  do  not  run  risks 
with  such  a  very  shaky  hypothesis  as  that  death  will 
change  the  main  direction  of  your  life ;  but  remember  that 
what  a  man  sows  he  shall  reap,  that  the  present  is  the 
parent  of  the  future,  and  that  unless  we  have  the  earnest 
of  the  inheritance  here,  and  pass  into  the  other  world,  bear- 
ing that  earnest  in  our  hands,  there  seems  little  reason 
why  we  should  expect  that,  when  we  stand  before  Him 
empty-handed,  we  can  claim  a  portion  therein. 

I  was  passing  a  little  town  garden  a  day  or  two  ago,  of 
B2 


244  THE  PRESENT   AND   FUTURE   INHERITANCE. 

which  the  owner  had  got  a  young  weeping  willow  that  he 
had  put  in  the  plot  in  front  of  his  door.  He  had  bent 
down  its  branches  and  put  them  round  the  hoop  of  an  old 
wine-cask  to  teach  them  to  droop.  And  after  a  bit,  when 
they  have  been  set,  he  will  take  away  the  hoop,  but  though 
it  be  gone  the  branches  will  never  spring  upwards,  wher- 
ever you  transplant  the  tree. 

Are  you  doing  that  with  your  souls  ?  If  you  give  them 
the  downward  set  they  will  keep  it,  though  the  earth  to 
which  you  have  fastened  them  be  burnt  up  with  fervent 
heat,  and  the  soul  be  transplanted  into  another  region. 

Let  me  beseech  you  to  yield  yourself  to  God  in  Christ, 
and  by  faith,  love,  and  true  submission,  to  take  Him  for 
your  treasure  and  your  King.  Then  Heaven  will  perfect 
the  partial  knowledge  and  incomplete  seivice  of  earth,  and 
will  be  the  consumn^ation  and  not  the  contradiction  of 
your  life  here.  Let  it  be  true  of  you  that  there  is  none  on 
earth  whom  you  desire  beside  God,  and  it  will  be  true 
thftt  He  will  be  for  you  the  very  Heaven  of  heavens ! 


THE   SEKVANT   OF  THE   LORD   AND   HI^ 
BLESSING. 


SERMON  XIX. 


THB  SERVANT  OP  THE  LORD  AND  HIS  BLESSINQ. 

"  Unto  you  flrst,  Gkxi,  having  raised  up  His  Servant,  sent  Him  to  bless  you,  in  tur» 
ing  away  every  one  of  you  from  your  iniquities."    Acts  iii.  26  (Revised  Version). 

Six  weeks  passed  between  the  Crucifixion  and  Pentecost. 
The  incidents  recorded  in  this  chapter  must  certainly 
have  occurred  very  soon,  if  not  immediately,  after  the  Day 
of  Pentecost.  The  entire  revolution  in  the  whole  tone 
and  bearing  of  the  disciples,  in  that  short  space  of  a  couple 
of  months,  is  a  problem  that  needs  accounting  for.  The 
greatness  of  the  change  is  nowhere  more  conspicuous  than 
in  the  instance  of  the  Apostle  Peter  himself — two  monthg 
before,  frightened  out  of  all  his  faith  by  a  saucy  maid- 
servant and  a  few  hangers-on  at  Pilate's  court ;  two 
months  before,  having  buried  all  his  hopes  in  his  Master's 
grave  ;  and  now  grown  all  at  once  into  a  hero,  with 
altogether  a  new  insight  into  Christian  truth.  How  had  it 
all  come  about  ?  Is  it  to  be  believed  that  nothing  had 
happened  but  Christ's  death  ?  How  could  that  have  cleared 
and  strengthened  these  men's  conceptions  and  faith  ? 
How  could  that  have  bound  them  far  more  closely  to- 


248  THE  SERVANT   AND   HIS  BLESSING. 

gether  than  ever  they  had  been  before  ?  Something  it 
wanted  to  account  for  the  change. 

If  you  bring  in  the  Resurrection  and  the  Ascension, 
and  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  you  get  an  adequate  ex- 
planation. If  you  try  to  get  rid  of  these  for  the  sake  of 
eliminating  the  supernatural  from  the  history,  you  get  rid 
of  the  supernatural,  and  you  make  it  unnatural ;  a  psy- 
chological contradiction,  in  blank,  staring  antagonism  to 
all  the  possibilities  of  the  action  of  sane  men. 

These  words  come  out  of  one  of  the  three  addresses 
belonging  to  this  period,  which  are  preserved  for  us  in 
the  Book  of  the  Acts— addresses  which,  in  certain  respects, 
are  unlike  both  what  the  Apostles  said  and  thought  before, 
and  what  they  said  and  thought  afterwards.  They  bear 
traces  of  a  transition  period  ;  and  the  facts  that  we  meet 
in  them  some  forms  of  speech  which  we  do  not  find  at  a 
subsequent  period,  and  that  also  we  do  not  meet  in  them 
some  teaching  that  afterwards  appeared  in  the  course  of 
the  development  of  Christian  doctrine,  are  very  valuable 
evidence  that  these  are  authentic  records  of  the  first  days 
of  the  Church. 

I. — In  dealing  with  these  words,  we  may  notice  first, 
the  boldness  and  loftiness  of  the  claim  which  is  here 
made  for  Jesus  Christ. 

Long  ago  Peter  had  said,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  the  living  God."  And  as  long  as  Jesus  Christ  had  been 
with  them  none  of  them  had  wavered  in  that  belief  :  but 
the  Cross  shattered  all  that  for  a  time  ;  and  the  sad-faced 
two  that  went  down  to  Emmaus  represented  accurately 
the  feelings  of  all  their  brethren  when  they  said,  with 
such  a  bitter  emphasis  upon  the  past  tense  :  "  We  trusted 
that  it  had  been  He  that  should  have  redeemed  Israel." 
In  the  interval  between  the  death  and  resurrection,  Jebus 
Christ  was  in  the  same  category  as  "Theudas  wi»ich  had 
boasted  himself  to  be  somebody,  and  was  slain  and  ali 


THE  tiEitVAJST   AKD   M18   BLESiSlJSG  249 

as  many  as  obeyed  him.  were  scattered  and  brought  to 
nought."  (Acts  V.  36.)  There  had  been  plenty  of  pre- 
tenders to  the  Messiahship,  and  death  had  disposed  of  all 
their  claims.  And  so  it  would  have  been  with  Christ ; 
and  you  would  never  have  heard  anything  about  Him 
unless  He  had  risen  from  the  dead.  But  the  faith  and 
hope  in  His  Messiahship  which  had  died  with  Him  on 
the  Cross,  rose  with  Him  to  newness  of  life — crucified  in 
weakness,  and  raised  in  strength  and  glory — as  we  see 
from  such  words  as  these  of  Peter  here,  in  which  he  pro- 
claims with  new  meaning  and  emphasis  the  mission  of 
his  Master  : — "  God,  having  raised  up  His  Son  Jesus,  sent 
Him  to  bless  you." 

Now  the  characteristic  of  these  early  addresses  contained 
in  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  chapters  of  the  Acts,  is 
the  clear  decisiveness  with  which  they  put  forward  Christ 
as  the  fulfilment  of  Jewish  prophecy.  It  seems  as  if  the 
Cross  and  the  Resurrection  had  poured  a  flood  of  light 
on  the  Old  Testament.  Psalm  and  prophecy  assume  new 
significance.  Lawgiver  and  monarch  have  a  new  purpose. 
They  point  onwards  to  Him,  and  "  all  they  that  go  before 
cry,  Hosanna,  blessed  be  He  that  cometh  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord."  If  we  could  read  these  discourses 
with  sympathy  for  the  speaker,  and  think  of  them  as  the 
eager  words  of  a  man  awed  and  surprised  and  gladdened  as 
the  new  light  floods  his  mind,  we  should  know  them  better. 
To  ns  they  are  rigid  and  cold,  like  iron  bars  ;  but  they 
were  all  hot  and  fluid  when  they  poured  from  his  lips 
like  metal  from  the  furnace. 

Almost  every  word  here  has  reference  to  some  great 
utterance  of  the  past,  which  now  for  the  first  time  Peter  is 
beginning  to  understand. 

For  instance,  "  God.  having  raised  up  His  Son  Jesus.'* 
Now  in  these  words  there  is  no  reference  to  the  Resurrec- 
tion, but  if  you  look  back  for  a  verse  or  two  you  will  see 


250  THE  SERVANT   AND   HIS   BLESSING. 

what  there  is  a  reference  to.  "  Moses  truly  said  nnto  the 
fathers  :  A  prophet  shall  the  Lord  your  God  raise  up  unto 
you  of  your  brethren,  like  unto  me  ;  Him  shall  ye  hear  in 
all  things  whatsoever  He  shall  say  unto  you."  And  what 
can  be  more  clear  here  than  that  the  Apostle  is  claiming 
that  the  ancient  prophecy  of  a  prophet  like  unto  his 
brethren,  raised  up  by  God,  is  fulfilled  in  Jesus  Christ  ? 
Now  that  prediction  fi-om  the  Pentateuch,  no  doubt,  refers 
to  the  prophetic  order,  and  the  word,  "  a  prophet,"  is  not 
primarily  a  singular,  meaning  an  individual,  but  a  collec- 
tive, meaning  a  class.  But  still  the  order  does  not  come 
np  to  the  ideal  of  the  prophecy — as  was  seen  even  before 
a  person  appeared  who  did.  For  the  appendix  to  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy  is  plainly  referring  to  the  prophecy, 
and  declaring  the  shortcomings  of  the  whole  prophetic 
order  when  it  sadly  says,  "  And  there  arose  not  a  prophet 
since  in  Israel  like  unto  Moses."  When  these  words  were 
added  we  do  not  know.  Evidently  they  presuppose  the 
existence  of  a  series  of  prophets  extending  through  a  con- 
siderable period,  and  if  we  adopted  modern  theories  of 
the  date  of  the  book,  these  would  increase  the  significance 
of  these  last  words,  considered  as  the  verdict  of  experience 
on  the  inferiority  of  all  the  prophets  to  the  great  law-giver 
in  certain  specified  respects.  That  saying  at  the  close  of 
the  book  of  the  law  is  a  confession  of  unfulfilled  hopes 
which  still  burn  on,  though  disappointed  for  weary  years, 
and  still  spread  before  God  His  own  promise  as  in  unspoken 
prayer  that  He  would  accomplish  His  own  word  on  which 
He  had  caused  men  to  hope.  And  it  seems  a  perfectly 
legitimate  position  to  say  that  the  prophetic  order  itself 
was  a  prophecy  by  reason  of  the  very  incompleteness  of 
the  noble  men  who  composed  it,  and  that  not  only  by 
their  words,  but  by  their  office  and  by  their  limitations, 
they  pointed  onwards  to  Him  who  is  the  perfect  Revealer 
of  God  to  man,  the  perfect  Inspirer,  to  whom  God  gives 


THE   SERVANT   AND  HIS  BLESSING.  251 

not  His  Spirit  by  measure,  nor  at  intervals,  and  who  not 
only,  like  the  great  law-giver,  beheld  God  face  to  face,  but 
from  the  beginning  dwelt  in  the  bopom  of  the  Father 
and  therefore  declares  Him  perfectly  to  men.  The  manifold 
methcds  and  fragmentary  portions  of  the  revelations  to 
the  prophetic  order  are  surpassed  by  the  one  final  and 
complete  uttejance  in  the  Son,  given  to  the  world  for  ever- 
more as  noon  day  outshines  the  twilight  dawn.  He  is 
chief  of  the  prophets  as  He  is  Prince  of  all  the  kings  of 
the  earth  and  the  Priest.  And  all  this  is  hinted  and 
implied  in  that  one  significant  and  pregnant  word  :  "  God, 
having  raised  up  His  Son." 

Another  great  claim  for  Christ  is  suggested  by  that 
other  word  "  His  Son  Jesus."  Now  those  of  you  who  use 
the  Revised  Version  will  see  that  for  "  Son  "  is  substituted 
"Servant,"  and  rightly.  This  is  not  the  place  to  enter 
into  any  discussion  of  the  reasons  for  that  change,  but  I 
may  just  perhaps  in  tw^o  or  three  sentences  explain  it  suf- 
ficiently to  my  hearers  who  do  not  follow  the  original. 
The  Greek  word,  then,  w^hich  our  Authorised  Version 
translates  "  Son "  and  the  Revised  Version  translates 
"  Servant "  means,  literally,  a  "  boy  "  or  a  "  child,"  and  like 
our  own  English  equivalent,  is  sometimes  used  with  the 
meaning  of  "  a  servant."  For  instance,  we  talk  about  "  a 
boy,"  or  "a  maid,"  or  "a  man,"  meaning  thereby  to 
express  the  fact  of  service  in  a  graceful  and  gentle  way  ; 
to  cover  over  the  harsher  features  of  authority.  So  the 
centurion  in  Matthew^'s  Gospel,  when  he  comes  to  Christ 
and  asks  Him  to  heal  his  little  page,  calls  him  "  his  boy," 
which  our  Bible  properly  translates  as  "servant," — ^the 
same  word  that  is  employed  here.  The  reasons  for  adopt- 
ing "  servant "  here  rather  than  "  son  "  are  these  :  that  the 
New  Testament  has  a  distinct  expression  for  the  "  Son  of 
God,"  which  is  not  the  word  employed  here  :  and  that  the 
Septuagint — ^the  Greek  version  of  the  Old  Testament — has 


252  THE  SBRVAirr  and  his  blessing. 

the  same  expression  which  is  employed  here  as  the  trane- 
lation  of  the  well-known  phrase  occurring  especially  in 
Isaiah's  prophecy,  "  the  Servant  of  the  Lord." 

Now  it  is  interesting  to  notice  that  this  expression,  "  the 
Servant  of  God,"  as  applied  to  Jesus  Christ,  only  occurs  at 
this  period.  We  never  find  it  earlier,  we  never  find  it 
later.  "We  find  it  here  and  here  only,  in  this  sermon  of 
Peter's,  and  in  some  other  words  of  his  in  the  next  chapter. 
Altogether  it  occurs  four  times  in  these  two  chapters,  and 
never  again  Does  not  that  look  like  the  frequent  repeti- 
tion of  a  new  thought  which  had  just  come  to  a  man  and 
was  taking  up  his  whole  mind  for  the  time  ?  The  Cross 
and  the  Resurrection  had  opened  his  eyes  to  see  that  the 
dim  majestic  figure  that  looked  out  on  him  from  the 
prophecy  had  had  a  historical  existence  in  the  dear  Master 
whom  he  had  lived  beside  ;  and  we  can  almost  perceive  the 
gladness  and  surprise  swelling  his  heart  as  he  thinks — 
"  Ah  !  then  He  is  '  My  servant  whom  I  upheld.'  Of  whom 
speaketh  the  prophet  this  ?  Wonder  of  wonders,  it  is  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  we  are  His  witnesses."  It  is  not 
strange  that  that  name  should  be  ever  on  his  lips  in  these 
lays. 

If  you  turn  to  the  second  half  of  Isaiah's  prophecies,  you 
rvill  find  that  they  might  almost  be  called  the  biography 
^f  the  Servant  of  the  Lord.  And  whilst  I  quite  admit,  in 
the  same  way  as  I  admitted  about  the  "  Prophet  like  unto 
me,"  that  the  collective  Israel  is  often  intended  by  the 
title  "  the  Servant  of  the  Lord,"  there  remain  other  parts 
of  the  prophecy — the  shining  summits  of  the  table-land, 
as  it  were — which  cannot  apply  to  any  class,  but  have 
distinctly  a  person  for  their  subject,  and  which  cannot 
apply  to  any  person  but  One,  that  is  the  Person  that  died 
and  lived  again. 

For  instance,  is  there  any  fact  in  the  history  of  any 
community  or  any  person  which  can  correspond  to  the 


THE  SERVANT  AND   HIS   BLESSING/  253 

words,  *•  when  His  soul  shall  make  an  offering  for  sin  He 
shall  see  His  seed  "  ?  Who  is  it  whose  death  is  the  birth 
of  His  children,  whom  after  His  death  He  will  see  ?  Who 
is  it  whose  death  is  His  own  voluntary  act  ?  Who  is  it 
whose  death  is  a  sacrifice  for  others'  sin  ?  Who  is  it  whose 
days  are  protracted  after  death,  and  who  carries  out  more 
prosperously  the  pleasure  of  the  Lord  after  He  has  died  ? 
Surely  there  is  but  One  of  whom  these  things,  and  many 
more  that  are  said  of  the  Servant  of  the  Lord,  are  true. 

But  that  name  on  Peter's  lips  is  not  only  a  reference  to 
prophecy,  but  it  is  a  very  beautiful  revelation  of  the  im- 
pression of  absolute  perfection  which  Christ's  character 
made.  Here  was  a  man  that  "had  conipanied  with  Him 
all  the  time  that  the  Lord  Jesus  went  in  and  out  amongst 
them,"  who  knew  Him  through  and  through  ;  and  the 
impression  made  upon  him,  when  he  came  to  think  of  his 
Master's  life,  was  this  : — "  All  the  time  that  I  saw  Him 
there  was  never  a  trace  of  anything  but  obedience.  All 
His  life  was  pure  and  perfect  submission  to  the  Divine 
will."  Jesus  asserted  the  same  thing  for  Himself  in  many 
words.  No  consciousness  of  sin  or  incompleteness  ever 
found  utterance  from  His  lips,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
words  unexampled  in  the  serenity  of  their  claim  to  abso- 
lute purity  : —  "  I  do  always  the  things  that  please  Him  ; " 
"  Which  of  you  convinceth  Me  of  sin  ?  "  Strange  claims 
from  one  who  is  meek  and  lowly  of  heart  !  Stranger  still, 
the  world,  not  usually  tolerant  of  pretensions  to  sanctity, 
has  allowed  and  endorsed  the  claim,  and  these  humble 
friends  of  His,  who  stood  by  and  watched  Him,  who 
summered  and  wintered  with  Him,  bear  eager  witness  to 
His  perfect  life. 

So  the  claim  rises  up  into  yet  loftier  regions  ;  for  clearly 
enough,  a  perfect  and  stainless  man  is  either  an  impossible 
monster  or  something  more.  And  they  that  fully  believe 
that  God's  will  was  absolutely  and  exclusively  and  com- 


254  THE  SERVANT  AND   HIS  BLESSING. 

pletely  done  by  Jesus  Christ,  in  all  consistency,  if  they 
will  carry  out  their  principles,  must  go  a  step  further  and 
say,  "  He  that  perfectly  did  the  Father's  will  was  more 
than  one  of  us,  stained  and  sinful  men."  There  is  one 
biography,  and  there  is  but  one,  on  the  title-page  of  which 
might  be  written,  "  Lo,  I  come.  I  delight  to  do  Thy  will, 
0  my  God,"  and  the  last  page  of  which  might  truly  bear, 
**  He  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  His  mouth  " 
— and  God  and  man,  and  Heaven  with  its  attendant  angels, 
and  hell  with  its  baffled  Prince,  would  attest  the  words. 

II. — Now,  turn  to  the  next  point  that  comes  out  of  the 
words  before  us,  the  dawning  vision  of  a  kingdom  of 
world-wide  blessings. 

Peter  and  all  his  brethren  had  had  their  full  share  of 
Jewish  prejudices.  But  I  suppose  that  when  they  found 
the  tongues  of  fire  sitting  on  their  heads,  and  when  they 
found  themselves  speaking  in  so  many  different  languages, 
even  they  began  to  apprehend  that  they  had  been  ia- 
trusted  with  a  w^orld-wide  gospel  ;  and  Pentecost  taught 
them,  if  it  taught  nobody  else,  that  Christ's  Kingdom  was 
to  cover  all  the  earth.  The  words  before  us  mark  very 
clearly  the  growing  of  that  consciousness  of  the  world- 
wide destination  of  the  Gospel,  while  yet  the  Jewish  pre- 
rogative of  precedence  is  firmly  held.  "  Unto  you  first  " 
— that  was  the  law  of  the  apostolic  working.  But  they 
were  beginning  to  learn  that  if  there  were  a  "  first,"  there 
must  also  be  a  '*  second  "  ;  and  that  the  very  words  of 
promise  to  the  father  of  the  nation  which  he  had  just 
quoted  pointed  to  "  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  "  being 
blessed  in  the  seed  of  Abraham. 

If  Israel  was  first  to  receive  the  blessing,  it  was  only 
that  through  Israel  it  might  flow  over  into  the  whole 
Gentile  world.  That  is  the  true  spirit  of  "Judaism," 
which  is  so  often  spoken  of  as  "  narrow"  and  "exclusive." 
There  is  nothing  clearer  in  the  Old  Testament  than  that, 


THE  SERVANT  AND  HIS  BLESSING.  255 

according  to  its  view,  the  fire  is  kindled  in  Israel  that  it 
may  give  warmth  to  all  that  are  in  the  house  ;  and  the 
candle  is  lighted  in  Israel  in  order  that  it  might  shed  light 
on  all  the  chambers  of  the  world.  Israel  was  the  first  re- 
picient,  in  order  that  it  might  be  the  transmitter  of  God's 
light  and  knowledge  to  all  the  world.  That  was  the 
genius  of  "  Judaism,"  and  that  is  Peter's  faith  here. 

Then  again  what  grand  confidence  is  here !  What  a 
splendid  audacity  of  faith  it  is  for  the  Apostle  with  his 
handful  of  friends  to  stand  up  in  the  face  of  his  nation 
to  say  :  "  This  Man,  whom  you  hung  on  a  tree,  is  going 
to  be  the  blessing  of  the  whole  world." 

Why  !  it  is  like  the  old  Roman  story  of  putting  up  to 
auction  in  the  Forum  the  very  piece  of  land  that  the 
enemy's  camp  was  pitched  upon,  whilst  their  tents  were 
visible  over  the  wall.  So  magnificent  was  their  confidence 
that  victory  is  certain. 

And  how  did  all  that  come  ?  Was  all  that  heroism  and 
enthusiasm  of  confident  success  born  out  of  the  grave  of  a 
dead  man,  do  you  think  ?  I  do  not  believe  it,  and  I  do 
not  think  anybody  that  has  an  eye  for  the  probabilities 
of  human  conduct  will  believe  it.  But  the  Resurrection 
■was  the  foundation  of  it,  and  explains  it,  as  nothing  else 
can  do. 

III. — The  last  thing  to  be  observed  here  is  the  purely 
spiritual  conception  of  what  Christ's  blessing  is.  "To 
bless  you  in  turning  away  every  one  of  you  from  his 
iniquities." 

What  has  become  of  all  the  Jewish  notions  of  the  bless- 
ings of  Messiah's  Kingdom  ?  Most  of  them,  no  doubt,  had 
faded  away,  as  the  meaning  of  and  need  for  the  Cross  began 
to  be  more  clear,  and  the  high  and  pure  conception  of 
Christ's  work  which  it  teaches  began  to  take  definiteness 
in  their  minds.  That  had  not  been  the  kind  of  kingdom 
d  which  they  had  dreamed  when  they  had  sought  to  be 


256  THE  SERVANT  AND  HIS  BLI^SSINO. 

first  In  it.  But  now  the  Cross  had  taught  Peter  that,  as 
he  says  in  one  of  his  other  early  discourses,  Him  hath 
God  raised  up  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour  to  give — strange 
gift  for  a  prince  to  have  in  his  hand — "  to  give  repentance 
unto  Israel,  and  remission  of  sins." 

The  heart,  then,  of  Christ's  work  for  the  world  is 
deliverance  from  sin.  That  is  what  man  needs  most. 
There  are  plenty  of  other  remedies  offered  for  the  world's 
ills — culture,  art,  new  political  and  social  arrangements, 
progress  of  science  and  the  like.  God  forbid  that  I  should 
say  a  word  that  might  seem  to  depreciate  these,  but  I  tell 
you,  and  your  own  consciences  tell  you,  that  the  disease 
goes  deeper  than  these  things  can  cure.  The  Bible  diag- 
noses the  disease  grimly  and  gravely,  because  it  knows  it 
can  cure  it.  You  may  as  well  try  to  put  out  Vesuvius 
with  a  tea-spoonful  of  cold  water  as  to  cure  the  sickness 
of  humanity  with  anything  that  does  not  grapple  with 
the  fundamental  mischief,  and  that  is  a  wicked  heart. 
There  is  only  one  Man  that  ever  pretended  He  could  deal 
with  that,  and  that  is  Jesus  Christ.  And  it  took  Him  all 
His  power  to  deal  with  it ;  but  He  did  it  I  And  there  is 
only  one  way  by  which  He  could  deal  with  it,  and  that 
was  by  dying  for  it,  and  He  did  it !     So  He  has  conquered. 

"  Canst  thou  draw  out  leviathan  with  an  hook  ?  "  When 
you  can  lead  a  crocodile  out  of  the  Nile  with  a  bit  of  silk 
thread  round  his  neck,  you  will  be  able  to  overcome  the 
plague  of  the  world,  and  that  of  your  own  heart,  with 
anything  short  of  the  great  sacrifice  made  by  Jesus  Christ. 

The  one  thing  the  world  wants  is  the  blessing  He  alone 
can  give  it,  and  that  blessing  is  deliverance  from  sin.  No 
man  will  understand  Christ's  Gospel  unless  He  begins 
there.  I  believe  that  the  secret  of  most  of  the  mistaken 
and  partial  views  of  Christian  truth  lies  here,  that  people 
have  not  got  into  their  hearts  and  consciences  a  sense 
of  their  own  sinfulness.     And  so  you  get  a  tepid,  self- 


THE   SERVANT  AND   HIS  BLESSING.  257 

sufficient  and  superficial  Christianity  ;  and  yon  get 
ceremonials,  and  high  and  dry  morality,  masquerading 
nnder  the  gnise  of  religion  :  and  you  get  Unitarian  and 
semi-Unitarian  tendencies  in  churches  and  preachers  and 
thinkers.  But  if  once  there  came  a  wholesome,  living 
consciousness  of  what  is  meant  when  men  say  "  We  are 
sinners,"  all  such  mutilated  Christianity  would  crumble 
because  it  would  be  felt  to  be  all  inadequate  to  the  needs 
of  the  conscience. 

So,  brethren,  I  beseech  yon,  to  put  yourself  in  the  right 
place  to  understand  the  Gospel  by  the  recognition  of  that 
fact.  But  do  not  stop  there.  More  than  the  right  under- 
standing of  Christianity  is  at  stake.  It  is  a  matter  of  life 
and  death  for  you  to  put  yourselves  in  the  right  place  to 
receive  Christ's  richest  blessing.  You  can  only  do  that 
by  feeling  in  your  own  conscience  the  fact  of  your  own 
personal  sin,  and  so  coming  to  Him  to  do  for  you  what 
you  cannot  do  for  yourselves,  and  no  one  but  He  can  do 
for  you— deliver  you  from  your  sins  by  His  forgiving  love, 
and  turn  you  from  the  inclination  to  them  by  His  sancti- 
fying Spirit. 

And  notice  how  strongly  the  text  puts  the  individuality 
of  this  process.  "  Every  one  " — or  rather  "  each  one  " — 
singly  to  be  turned,  and  so,  as  it  were,  universality 
reached  through  the  multitude  of  single  souls.  If  all 
kindreds  of  earth  are  to  be  blessed,  they  are  to  be  blessed 
one  by  one,  as  every  one  is  turned  from  his  iniquities. 
The  inadequate  notions  of  Christianity  that  I  have  been 
speaking  about  are  all  characterised  by  this  amongst  other 
things  :  that  they  regard  it  as  a  social  system  diffusing 
social  blessings  and  operating  on  communities  by  eleva- 
ting the  general  tone  and  quickening  the  public  con- 
science— and  so  on.  Christianity  does  do  that.  But  it  be- 
gins with  dealing  with  men  one  by  one,  and  men  must  deal 
one  by  one  with  it,  orthey  will  never  get  its  highest  blessings. 

S 


258  THE  SERVANT   AND  HIS  BLBSSINO. 

Christ  is  like  a  great  King,  who  passing  through  the 
streets  of  His  capital  scatters  His  largesse  over  the  multi- 
tude, but  He  reserves  His  richest  gifts  for  the  men  that 
enter  His  presence  chamber.  Even  those  of  us  who  have 
no  close  personal  union  with  Him  receive  of  His  gifts. 
Every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  England  is  better  and 
purer  to-day  because  Christ  died  on  the  Cross.  But  for 
their  deepest  needs  and  their  highest  blessings  they  must 
go  to  Christ  by  their  own  personal  faith.  As  the  old 
mystics  defined  prayer,  so  I  might  define  faith  :  the  flight 
of  the  solitary  soul  to  the  only  Christ.  You  must  go  to 
Him  by  yourself  and  for  yourself,  and  receive  into  your 
own  hands  the  blessing  which  is  for  the  world.  The  straight 
gate,  like  the  wicket  at  some  public  hall,  takes  in  one  at 
a  time.  Blessed  be  God  I  There  is  nothing  to  pay  as 
you  pass  through,  and  when  you  pass  you  enter  into  a 
large  place. 


THE  GRADUAL  HEALING  OF  THE  BLIND  MAN. 


SERMON    X3L 


THE  GRADUAL  HEALINO  OF  THE   BLIND  MAN. 


"And  Jesus  cometh  to  Bethsaida;  and  they  bring  a  blind  man  unto  Him,  and  be- 
•ouglit  Him  to  touch  him.  And  He  took  the  blind  man  by  the  hand,  and  led  him  out 
of  the  town ;  and  when  He  had  spit  on  hia  eyes,  and  put  Hia  hands  upon  him,  He 
asked  him  if  he  saw  aught.  And  he  looked  up,  and  said,  I  see  men  as  trees  walking. 
After  that  He  put  His  hands  upon  his  eyes  and  made  him  look  ap ;  and  he  was  restored 
and  saw  every  man  clearly."    Mark  Till,  22-2f. 


This  miracle,  which  is  only  recorded  by  the  Evangelist. 
Mark,  has  about  it  several  very  peculiar  features.  Some 
of  these  it  shares  with  one  other  of  our  Lord's  miracles, 
which  also  is  found  only  in  this  Gospel,  and  which 
ocurred  nearly  about  the  same  time  ;  that  miracle  of 
healing  the  deaf  and  dumb  man  recorded  in  the  previous 
chapter.  Both  of  them  have  these  points  in  common : 
that  our  Lord  takes  the  sufferer  apart  and  works  His 
miracle  in  privacy  ;  that  in  both  there  is  an  abundant  use 
of  the  same  singular  means — our  Lord's  touch,  and  the 
saliva  upon  His  finger  ;  and  that  in  both  there  is  the 
urgent  injunction  of  entire  secrecy  laid  upon  the  recipient 
of  the  benefit. 

But  this  miracle  had  another  peculiarity,  in  which  it 
stands  absolutely  alone,  and  that  is  that  the  work  is  done 
in  stages  ;  that  the  power  which  at  other  times  has  but  to 
speak  and  it  is  done,  here  seems  to  labour,  and  the  cure 


262     THE  GRADUAL  HEALING  OF  THB  BLIND  MAN. 

comes  slowly  ;  that  in  the  middle  Christ  pauses,  and  like 
a  physician  trying  the  experiment  of  a  drug,  asks  the 
patient  if  any  effect  is  produced,  and  getting  the  answer 
that  some  mitigation  is  realised,  repeats  the  application, 
and  perfect  recovery  is  the  result. 

Now,  how  unlike  that  is  to  all  the  rest  of  Christ's 
miraculous  working  we  do  not  need  to  point  out ;  but  the 
question  may  arise,  what  is  the  meaning,  and  what  the 
reason,  and  what  the  lessons  of  this  unique  and  anomalous 
form  of  miraculous  working  ?  It  is  to  that  question 
that  I  wish  to  turn  now  :  for  I  think  that  the 
answer  will  open  up  to  us  some  very  precious  things  in 
regard  to  that  great  Lord,  the  revelation  of  whose  heart 
and  character  is  the  inmost  and  the  loftiest  meaning  both 
of  His  words  and  of  His  works. 

I  take  these  three  points  of  peculiarity  to  which  I  have 
referred :  the  privacy,  the  strange  and  abundant  use  of 
means  veiling  the  miraculous  power,  and  the  gradual,  slow 
nature  of  the  cure.  I  see  in  them  these  three  things  : 
Christ  isolating  the  man  that  He  would  heal ;  Christ 
stooping  to  the  sense-bound  nature  by  using  outward 
means  ;  and  Christ  making  His  power  work  slowly,  to 
keep  abreast  of  the  man's  slow  faith. 

I. — First,  then,  here  we  have  Christ  isolating  the  man 
whom  He  wanted  to  heal.  Now,  there  may  have  been  some- 
thing about  our  Lord's  circumstances  and  purposes  at  the 
time  of  this  miracle  which  accounted  for  the  great  urgency 
with  which  at  this  period  He  impresses  secrecy  upon  all 
around  Him.  What  that  was  it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to 
enquire  here,  but  this  is  worth  noticing,  that  in  obedience 
to  this  wish,  on  His  own  part,  for  privacy  at  the  time,  He 
covers  over  with  a  veil  His  miraculous  working,  and  does 
it  quietly,  as  one  might  almost  say,  in  a  corner.  He  never 
sought  to  display  His  miraculous  working  ;  here  He 
absolutely  tries  to  hide  it.   That  fact  of  Christ  taking  pains 


THB   GRADUAL  HEALING  OP  THE  BLIND  MAN.      263 

to  conceal  His  miracle  carries  in  it  two  great  truths,  first, 
about  the  purpose  and  nature  of  miracles  in  general,  and 
second,  about  His  character,  as  to  each  of  which  a  few 
words  may  be  said. 

This  fact,  of  a  miracle  done  in  intended  secrecy,  and 
shrouded  in  deep  darkness,  suggests  to  us  the  true  point  of 
view  from  which  to  look  at  the  whole  subject  of  miracles. 

People  say  they  were  meant  to  be  attestations  of  His 
Divine  mission.  Yes,  no  doubt  that  is  true  partially  ; 
but  that  was  never  the  sole  nor  even  the  main  purpose  for 
which  they  were  wrought  ;  and  when  anybody  asked 
Jesus  Christ  to  work  a  miracle  for  that  purpose  only,  He 
rebuked  the  desire  and  refused  to  gratify  it.  He  wrought 
the  miracle,  not  coldly,  in  order  to  witness  to  His  mission, 
but  every  one  of  them  was  the  token,  because  it  was  the 
outcome,  of  His  own  sympiithetic  heart,  brought  into  con- 
tact with  human  need.  And  instead  of  the  miracles  of 
Jesus  Christ  being  cold,  logical  proofs  of  His  mission, 
they  were  all  glowing  with  the  earnestness  of  a  loving 
sympathy,  and  came  from  Him  at  sight  of  sorrow  as 
naturally  as  rays  from  the  sun. 

Then,  on  the  other  hand,  the  same  fact  carries  with  it, 
too,  a  lesson  about  His  character.  Is  not  He  here  doing 
what  He  tells  us  to  do  ;  "  Let  not  thy  left  hand  know 
what  thy  right  hand  doeth  ? "  He  dares  not  wrap  His  talent 
in  a  napkin,  He  would  be  unfaithful  to  His  mission  if  Ho 
hid  His  light  under  a  bushel.  All  goodness  "  does  good 
by  stealth,"  even  if  it  does  not  "  blush  to  find  it  fame  ** — 
and  that  universal  mark  of  true  benevolence  marked  His. 
He  had  to  solve  in  His  human  life  what  we  have  to  solve, 
the  problem  of  keeping  the  narrow  path  between  ostenta- 
tion of  powers  and  selfish  concealment  of  faculty  ;  and 
He  solved  it  thus,  leaving  us  an  example  that  we  should 
follow  in  His  steps. 

But  that  is  somewhat  aside  from  the  main  purpose  to 


264     THE  GRADUAL   HEALING  OF  THE  BLIND  MAN. 

which  I  wanted  to  turn  in  these  first  remarks.  Christ  did 
not  invest  the  miracle  with  any  of  its  peculiarities  for  His 
own  sake  only.  All  that  is  singular  about  it,  will,  I  think, 
find  its  best  explanation  in  the  condition  and  character  of 
the  subject,  the  man  on  whom  it  was  wrought.  What  sort 
of  a  man  was  he  ?  Well,  the  narrative  does  not  tell  us 
much,  but  if  we  use  onr  historical  imagination  and  our 
eyes  we  may  learn  something  about  him.  First  he  was  a 
Gentile  ;  the  land  in  which  the  miracle  was  wrought  was 
the  half -heathen  country  on  the  east  side  of  the  Sea  of 
Galilee.  In  the  second  place,  it  was  other  people  that  brought 
him  ;  he  does  not  come  of  his  own  accord.  Then  again,  it  is 
their  prayer  that  is  mentioned,  not  his — he  asks  nothing. 

You  see  him  standing  there,  hopeless,  listless  ;  not 
believing  that  this  Jewish  stranger  is  going  to  do  anything 
for  him  ;  with  his  impassive  blind  face  glowing  with  no 
entreaty  to  re-enforce  his  companions' prayers.  And  suppose 
he  is  a  man  of  that  sort,  with  no  expectation  of  an3rthing 
from  this  Rabbi,  how  is  Christ  to  get  at  him  ?  It  is  no 
use  talking  to  him.  His  eyes  are  shut,  so  cannot  see  the 
sympathy  beaming  in  His  face.  There  is  one  thing 
possible — ^to  lay  hold  of  Him  by  the  hand  ;  and  the  touch, 
gentle,  loving,  firm,  says  this,  at  least :  "  Here  is  a  man 
that  has  some  interest  in  me,  and  whether  He  can  do  any- 
thing or  not  for  me.  He  is  going  to  try  something.'* 
Would  not  that  kindle  an  expectation  in  him  ?  And  is  it 
not  in  parable  just  exactly  what  Jesus  Christ  does  for  the 
whole  world  ?  Is  not  that  act  of  His  by  which  He  put 
out  His  hand  and  seized  the  unbelieving  limp  hand  of  the 
blind  man  that  hung  by  his  side,  the  very  same  in  princi- 
ple as  that  by  which  He  "  taketh  hold  of  the  seed  of 
Abraham,"  and  is  made  like  to  His  brethren  ?  Is  not  the 
mystery  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  meaning  of  it  wrapped 
up  as  in  a  germ  in  that  little  simple  incident,  "  He  put  out 
His  hand  and  touched  him  ?" 


THE  GRADUAL   HEALING  OF  THE   BLIND  MAN.      2G5 

Is  there  not  in  it  too  a  lesson  for  all  you  good-hearted 
Christian  men  and  women,  in  all  your  work  ?  If  you 
want  to  do  anything  for  your  Master  and  brethren,  there 
is  only  one  way  to  do  it — to  come  down  to  their  level  and 
get  hold  of  their  hands,  and  then  there  is  some  chance  of 
doing  them  good.  We  must  be  content  to  take  the  hands 
of  beggars  if  we  are  to  make  the  blind  to  see. 

And  then,  having  thus  drawn  near  to  the  man,  and  es- 
tablished in  his  heart  some  dim  expectation  of  something 
coming.  He  gently  draws  him  away  out  of  the  little  village. 
I  wonder  no  painter  has  ever  painted  that,  instead  of  re- 
peating dd   nauseam  two   or  three  scenes   out  of    the 
Gospels.     I  wonder  none  of  them  has  ever  seen  what  a 
parable  it  is— the  Christ  leading  the  blind  man  out  into 
Bolitude  before  He  can  say  to  him  "  Behold  !  "   How  as  they 
went,  step  by  step,  the  poor  blind  eyes  not  telling  the  man 
where  they  were  going,  or  how  far  away  he  was  being 
taken  from  his  friends,  his  conscious  dependence  upon  this 
stranger  would  grow  I     How  he  would  feel  more  and  more 
at  each  step,  "  I  am  at  His  mercy !     What  is  He  going  to 
do  with  me  ?  "     And  how  thus  there  would  be  kindled  in 
his  heart  some  beginnings  of  an  expectation,  as  well  as 
some  surrendering  of  himself  to  Christ's  guidance  I  These 
two  things,  the  expectation  and  the  surrender,  have  in 
them,  at  all  events  some  faint  beginnings  and  rude  germs 
of  the  highest  faith,  to  lead  up  to  which  is  the  purpose  of 
all  that  Christ  here  does. 

And  is  not  that  what  He  does  for  us  all  ?  Sometimes  by 
sorrows,  sometimes  by  sick-beds,  sometimes  by  shutting 
ns  out  from  chosen  spheres  of  activity,  sometimes  by 
striking  down  the  dear  ones  at  our  sides,  and  leaving  us 
lonely  in  the  desert — is  He  not  saying  to  us  in  a  thousand 
ways.  '*  Come  ye  yourselves  apart  into  a  desert  place  "  ? 
Ab  Israel  was  led  into  the  wilderness  that  God  might 
"  Bpeak  to  her  heart,"  so  often  Christ  draws  us  aside,  if 


THE   GRADUAL  HEALING  OP  THE  BLIND  MAN. 

not  by  outward  providences  such,  as  these,  yet  by  awaking 
in  us  that  solemn  sense  of  personal  responsibility  and 
making  us  feel  our  solitude,  that  He  may  lead  us  to  feel 
His  all-sufficient  companionship. 

Ah  1  brethren,  here  is  a  lesson  from  all  this — if  you 
want  Jesus  Christ  to  give  you  His  highest  gifts  and  to 
reveal  to  you  His  fairest  beauty,  you  must  be  alone  with 
Him.  He  loves  to  deal  with  single  souls.  Our  lives,  many 
of  them,  can  never  be  outwardly  alone.  We  are  jammed 
up  against  one  another  in  such  a  fashion,  and  the  hurry 
and  pressure  of  city  life  is  so  great  with  us  all  that  it  is 
often  impossible  for  us  to  find  the  outward  secrecy  and 
solitude.  But  a  man  may  be  alone  in  a  crowd  ;  the  heart 
may  be  gathered  up  into  itself,  and  there  may  be  a  still 
atmosphere  round  about  us  in  the  shop  and  in  the  market, 
and  amongst  the  busy  ways  of  men,  in  which  we  and 
Christ  shall  be  alone  together.  Unless  there  be,  I  do  not 
think  any  of  us  will  see  the  King  in  His  beauty  or  the  f  ar- 
ofE  land.  "  I  was  left  alone,  and  I  saw  this  great  vision  " 
is  the  law  for  all  true  beholding. 

So,  dear  brethren,  try  to  feel  how  awful  this  earthly  life  of 
ours  is  in  its  necessary  solitude  ;  that  each  of  us  by  himself 
must  shape  out  his  owti  destiny,  and  make  his  own  charac- 
ter ;  that  every  unit  of  the  swarms  upon  our  streets  is  a 
unit  that  has  to  face  the  solemn  facts  of  life  for  and  by 
itself  ;  that  alone  you  live,  that  alone  you  will  die ;  that  alone 
you  will  have  to  give  account  of  yourself  before  God,  and 
in  the  solitude  let  the  hand  of  your  heart  feel  for  His 
hand  that  is  stretched  out  to  grasp  yours,  and  listen  to 
Him  saying  "  Lo  I  I  am  with  you  always  ;  to  the  end  of 
the  world."  There  was  no  dreariness  in  the  solitude 
when  it  was  Christ  that  "took  the  blind  man  by  the  hand 
and  led  him  out  of  the  city." 

II. — We  have  Christ  stooping  to  a  sense-bound  nature 
by  the  use  of  material  helps.       No  doubt  there    was 


THE  GRADUAL  HEALING  OP  THE  BLIND  MAN. 


267 


Bomething  in  the  man,  as  I  have  said,  which  made  it 
advisable  that  these  methods  should  be  adopted.  If 
he  were  the  sort  of  person  that  I  have  described,  slow 
of  faith,  not  much  caring  about  the  possibility  of 
cure,  and  not  having  much  hope  that  anything  would 
come  of  it— then  we  can  see  the  fitness  of  the  means 
adopted  ;  the  hand  laid  upon  the  eyes,  the  finger  possibly 
moistened  with  saliva  touching  the  ball,  the  pausing  to 
question,  the  repeated  appli  -  ^ion.  They  make  a  ladder  by 
which  his  hope  and  confidence  might  climb  to  the  appre- 
hension of  the  blessing.  And  that  points  to  a  general 
principle  of  the  Divine  dealings.  God  stoops  to  a  feeble 
faith,  and  gives  to  it  outward  things  by  which  it  may  rise 
to  an  apprehension  of  spiritual  realities. 

Is  not  that  the  meaning  of  the  whole  complicated  system 
of  Old  Testament  revelation  ?  Is  not  that  the  meaning  of 
the  altars,  and  priests,  and  sacrifices,  and  the  old  cumbrous 
apparatus  of  the  Mosaic  law  ?  Was  it  not  all  a  picture- 
book  in  which  the  infant  eyes  of  the  race  might  see  in  a 
material  form  deep  spiritual  realities  ?  Was  not  that  the 
meaning  and  explanation  of  our  Lord's  parabolic  teaching  ? 
He  veils  spiritual  truth  in  common  things  that  He  may 
reveal  it  by  common  things— taking  fishermen's  boats, 
their  nets,  a  sower's  basket,  a  baker's  dough,  and  many 
another  homely  article,  and  finding  in  them  the  emblems 
of  the  loftiest  truth. 

Is  not  that  the  meaning  of  His  own  Incarnation  ?  It  is 
no  use  talking  to  men  about  God,  let  them  see  Him ;  no 
use  preaching  about  principles,  give  them  the  facts  of  His 
life.  Revelation  does  not  consist  in  the  setting  forth  of 
certain  propositions  about  God,  but  in  the  exhibition  of 
the  acts  of  God  in  a  human  life. 

"  And  80  the  Word  was  flesh  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creedB." 

And  still  further,  may  we  not  say  that  this  is  the  inmosJ 


268      THE  GRADUAL   HEALING  OF  THE  BLIND   MAN. 

meaning  and  purpose  of  the  whole  frame  of  the  material 
nniverse  ?  It  exists  in  order  that,  as  a  parable  and  a 
symbol,  it  may  proclaim  the  things  that  are  unseen  and 
eternal.  Its  depths  and  heights,  its  splendours,  and  its 
energies  are  all  in  order  that  through  them  spirits  may 
climb  to  the  apprehension  of  the  "  King  eternal,  immortal, 
invisible,"  and  the  realities  of  His  spiritual  kingdom. 

So  in  regard  of  all  the  externals  of  Christianity,  forms 
of  worship,  ordinances,  and  so  on — all  these,  in  like 
manner,  are  provided  in  condescension  to  our  weakness, 
in  order  that  by  them  we  may  be  lifted  above  themselves  ; 
for  the  purpose  of  the  temple  is  to  prepare  for  the  time 
and  the  place  where  the  seer  "  saw  no  temple  therein." 
They  are  but  the  cups  that  carry  the  wine,  the  flowers 
whose  chalices  bear  the  honey,  the  ladders  by  which  the 
■oul  may  climb  to  God  Himself,  the  rafts  upon  which  the 
precious  treasure  may  be  floated  into  our  hearts. 

If  Christ's  touch  and  Christ's  saliva  healed,  it  was  not 
because  of  anything  in  them,  but  because  He  willed  it  so  ; 
and  He  Himself  is  the  source  of  all  the  healing  energy. 
Therefore,  let  us  keep  these  externals  in  their  proper  place 
of  subordination,  and  remember  that  in  Him,  not  in  them, 
lies  the  healing  power  ;  and  that  even  Christ's  touch  may  be- 
come the  object  of  superstitious  regard,  as  it  was  when  that 
poor  woman  that  came  through  the  crowd  to  lay  her  finger 
on  the  hem  of  His  garment,  thinking  that  she  could  bear 
away  a  surreptitious  blessing  without  the  conscious  out- 
going of  His  power.  He  healed  her  because  there  was  a 
spark  of  faith  in  her  superstition,  but  she  had  to  learn  that 
it  was  not  the  hem  of  the  garment  but  the  loving  will  of 
Christ  that  cured,  in  order  that  the  dross  of  superstitious 
reliance  on  the  outward  vehicle  might  be  melted  away,  and 
the  pure  gold  of  faith  in  His  love  and  power  might  remain. 

III. — Lastly,  we  have  Christ  accommodating  the  pace  of 
His  power  to  the  slowness  of  the  man's  faith. 


THE  GRADUAL  HEALING   OF  THE   BLIND  MAN.     269 

The  whole  story,  as  I  have  said,  is  nnique,  and  especially 
that  part  of  it — "  He  put  His  hands  upon  him,  and  asked 
him  if  he  saw  aught."  One  might  have  expected  an 
answer  with  a  little  more  gratitude  in  it,  with  a  little 
more  wonder  in  i(^  with  a  little  more  emotion  in  it. 
Instead  of  these  it  is  almost  surly,  or  at  any  rate  strangely 
reticent — a  matter  of  fact  answer  to  the  question,  and 
there  an  end.  As  our  Revised  Version  reads  it  better  :  "  I 
see  men,  for  I  behold  them  as  trees  walking."  Curiously 
accurate  I  A  dim  glimmer  had  come  into  the  eye,  but 
there  is  not  yet  distinctness  of  outline  nor  sense  of  mag- 
nitude, which  must  be  acqnired  by  practice.  The  eye  has 
not  yet  been  educated,  and  it  was  only  because  these 
blurred  figures  were  in  motion  that  he  knew  they  were 
not  trees.  "  After  that  He  put  His  hands  upon  his  eyes 
and  made  him  look  up."  Or  as  the  Revised  Version  has 
it  with  a  better  reading,  "and  he  looked  steadfastly." 
An  eager  straining  of  the  new  faculty  to  make  sure  that 
he  had  got  it,  and  to  test  its  limits  and  its  perfection. 
"  And  he  was  restored  and  saw  all  things  clearly." 

Now  I  take  it  that  the  worthiest  view  of  that  strangely 
protracted  process,  broken  up  into  two  halves  by  the 
question  that  is  dropped  into  the  middle,  is  this,  that  it 
was  determined  by  the  man's  faith,  and  was  meant  to  in- 
crease it.  He  was  healed  slowly  because  he  believed 
slowly.  His  faith  was  a  condition  of  his  cure,  and  the 
measure  of  it  determined  the  measure  of  the  restoration  ; 
and  the  rate  of  the  gro^vth  of  his  faith  settled  the  rate  of 
the  perfecting  of  Christ's  work  on  him.  As  a  rule,  faith 
in  His  power  to  heal  was  a  condition  of  Christ's  healing, 
and  that  mainly  because  our  Lord  would  rather  have  men 
believing  than  sound  of  body.  They  often  wanted  only 
the  outward  miracle,  but  He  wanted  to  make  it  the  means 
of  insinuating  a  better  healing  into  their  spirits.  And  so, 
not  that  there   was  any   necessary  connection  between 


270     THE  GBADUAL   HEALING  OF  THE  BLIND  MAN. 

their  faith  and  the  exercise  of  His  n  iraonlous  power,  but 
in  order  that  He  might  bless  them  with  His  best  gifts,  He 
nsually  worked  on  the  principle,  "  According  to  your  faith 
be  it  unto  you."  And  here,  as  a  nurse  or  a  mother  with 
her  child  might  do,  He  keeps  step  with  the  little  steps, 
and  goes  slowly  because  the  man  goes  slowly. 

Now,  both  the  gradual  process  of  illumination  and  the 
rate  of  that  process  as  determined  by  faith,  are  true  for 
US.  How  dim  and  partial  a  glimmer  of  light  comes  to 
many  a  soul  at  the  outset  of  the  Christian  life  I  How^  little 
a  new  convert  knows  about  God  and  self  and  the  starry 
truths  of  His  great  revelation  !  Christian  progress  does 
not  consist  in  seeing  new  things,  but  in  seeing  the  old 
thing  more  clearly  ;  the  same  Christ,  the  same  Cross,  only 
more  distinctly  and  deeply  apprehended,  and  more  closely 
incorporated  into  my  very  being.  We  do  not  grow  away 
from  Him,  but  we  grow  into  knowledge  of  Him.  The 
first  lesson  that  we  get  is  the  last  lesson  that  we  shall  learn, 
and  He  is  the  Alpha  at  the  beginning,  and  the  Omega  at 
the  end  of  the  alphabet — the  letters  of  which  make  up  our 
knowledge  for  earth  and  Heaven. 

But  then  let  me  remind  you  that  just  in  the  measure  in 
■which  you  expect  blessing  of  any  kind,  illumination  and 
purifying  and  help  of  all  sorts  from  Jesus  Christ,  just  in 
that  measure  will  you  get  it.  You  can  limit  the  working 
of  Almighty  power,  and  can  determine  the  rate  at  which 
it  shall  work  on  you.  God  fills  the  water-pots  to  the  brim, 
but  not  beyond  the  brim  ;  and  if,  like  the  woman  in  the 
Old  Testament  story,  we  stop  bringing  vessels,  the  oil  will 
stop  flowing.  It  is  an  a^^^ul  thing  to  think  that  we  have 
the  power,  as  it  were,  to  turn  a  stopcock,  and  so  increase 
or  diminish,  or  cut  off  altogether  the  supply  of  God's 
mercy  and  Christ's  healing  and  cleansing  love  in  our 
hearts.  You  will  get  as  much  of  God  as  you  want  and  no 
more.    The  measure  of  your  desire  is  the  measure  of  your 


THE  GRADUAL  HEALING  OP  THE  BLIND  MAN.     271 

capacity,  and  the  measure  of  your  capacity  is  the  measure 
of  God's  gift.  "  Open  thy  mouth  wide  and  I  will  fill  it." 
And  if  your  faith  is  heavily  shod  and  steps  slowly,  His 
power  and  His  grace  will  step  slowly  along  with  it ; 
keeping  rank  and  step.  "  According  to  your  faith  shall  it 
be  unto  you." 

Ah  I  dear  friends,  "  Ye  are  not  straitened  in  Me,  ye  are 
straitened  in  yourselves."  Desire  Him  to  help  and  bless 
you,  and  He  will  do  it.  Expect  Him  to  do  it,  and  He  will 
do  it.  Go  to  Him  like  the  other  blind  man,  and  say  to 
Him — "Jesus,  Thou  Son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  me, 
that  I  may  receive  my  sight,"  and  He  will  lay  His  hand 
upon  you,  and  at  any  rate  a  glimmer  will  come,  which 
will  grow  in  the  measure  of  your  humble,  confident  desire, 
until  at  last  He  takes  you  by  the  hand  and  leads  you  out 
of  this  poor  little  village  of  a  world,  and  lays  ilis  finger 
for  a  brief  moment  of  blindness  upon  your  eyes  and  asks 
you  if  you  see  aught.  Then  you  look  up,  and  the  first  face 
that  you  behold  shall  be  His,  whom  you  saw  "  as  through 
a  glass  darkly "  with  your  dim  eyes  in  this  twilight 
world. 

May  that  be  your  experience  and  mine,  through  Hit 
mercy  I 


THE   NAME   ABOVE   EVERY   NAME. 


SERMON  XXL 


THB  NAME  ABOVE  EVERT  NAMl. 

"ThOTtfow  I«t  all  the  house  of  Israel  know  aasnredly  that  God  hath  mad«  that  Mm* 
JesTiB,  Whom  ye  have  crucified,  both  Lord  and  Christ."    Acta  ii.,  88. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  at  this  time  to  consider 
the  special  circumstances  under  which  these  words  were 
spoken,  nor  even  to  enter  upon  an  exposition  of  their 
whole  scope.  I  select  them  for  one  reason,  the  occurrence 
in  them  of  the  three  names  by  which  we  designate  our 
Saviour— Jesus,  Christ,  Lord.  To  us  they  are  very  little 
more  than  three  proper  names  ;  they  were  very  different 
to  these  men  who  listened  to  the  characteristically  vehe- 
ment discourse  of  the  Apostle  Peter.  It  wanted  some 
courage  to  stand  up  at  Pentecost  and  proclaim  on  the 
housetop  what  he  had  spoken  in  the  ear  long  ago.  "  Thou 
art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God  1 "  To  most  of 
his  listeners  to  say  "Jesus  is  the  Christ"  was  folly,  and 
to  say  "  Jesus  is  the  Lord  "  was  blasphemy. 

The  three  names  are  names  of  the  same  Person,  but 
they  proclaim  altogether  different  aspects  of  His  work 
and  His  character.     The  name  "  Jesus "  is  the  name  of 

t2 


S76  THE  NAMB  ABOVE  EVERY  NAMB. 

the  Man,  and  brings  to  ns  a  brother  ;  the  name  "  Christ  •* 
is  the  name  of  office,  and  brings  to  us  a  Redeemer ;  the 
name  "  Lord  "  is  the  name  of  dignity,  and  brings  to  as  a 
King. 

I. — First,  then,  the  name  Jesns  is  the  name  of  the  Man, 
which  tells  us  of  a  Brother. 

There  were  many  men  in  Palestine  who  bore  the  name 
of  Jesus  when  He  bore  it.  We  find  that  one  of  the  early 
Christians  had  it ;  and  it  comes  upon  us  with  almost  a 
shock  when  we  read  that  one  "  Jesus,  called  Justus,"  was 
the  name  of  one  of  the  friends  of  the  Apostle  Paul  (Col. 
iv.,  11).  But,  through  reverence  on  the  part  of  Christians, 
and  through  horror  on  the  part  of  Jews,  the  name 
ceased  to  be  a  common  ox>e.  And  its  disappearance  from 
familiar  use  has  hid  from  us  the  fact  of  its  common 
employment  at  the  time  when  our  Lord  bore  it.  Though 
it  was  given  to  Him  as  indicative  of  His  office  of  saving 
His  people  from  their  sins,  yet  none  of  all  the  crowds  who 
knew  Him  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth  supposed  that  in  His 
name  there  was  any  greater  significance  than  in  those  of 
the  "  Simons,"  "  Johns,"  and  Judahs,"  in  the  circle  of  His 
disciples. 

Now  the  use  of  Jesus  as  the  proper  name  of  our  Lord, 
is  very  noticeable.  In  the  Gospels,  as  a  rule,  it  stands 
alone  hundreds  of  times,  whilst  in  combination  with  any 
other  of  the  titles  it  is  rare.  **  Jesus  Christ,"  for  instance, 
only  occurs,  if  I  count  aright,  twice  in  Matthew,  once  in 
Mark,  twice  in  John.  But  if  you  turn  to  the  Epistles  and 
the  latter  books  of  the  Scriptures,  the  proportions  are 
reversed.  There  you  have  hundreds  of  instances  of  the 
occurrence  of  such  combinations  as  "  Jesus  Christ,"  "  Christ 
Jesus,"  "The  Lord  Jesus,"  "Christ  the  Lord,"  and  not 
frequently  the  full  solemn  title,  "  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
But  the  occurrence  of  the  proper  name  *'  Jesus  "  alone  is 
the  exception.     So  far  as  I  know,  there  are  only  some 


THE   NAME   aB jVE  EVERY   NAME.  277 

thirty  or  forty  instances  of  its  use  singly  in  the  whv)le  of 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament  outside  of  the  four 
Evangelists.  The  occasions  where  it  is  used  are  all  of 
them  occasions  in  ^vhich  one  may  see  that  the  writer's 
intention  is  to  put  strong  emphasis,  for  some  reason  or 
other,  on  the  Manhood  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  and  to  assert  as 
broadly  as  may  be,  His  entire  participation  with  ns  in  the 
common  conditions  of  our  human  nature,  corporeal  and 
mental. 

And  I  think  I  shall  best  bring  out  the  meaning  and 
woi-th  of  the  name  by  putting  a  few  of  these  instances 
before  you. 

For  example,  we  find  more  than  once  phrases  like  this  : 
"we  believe  that  Jesus  died,"  "  having  therefore  boldness 
to  enter  into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,''  and  the 
like — which  emphasise  His  death  as  the  death  of  a  man 
like  ourselves,  and  bring  us  close  to  the  historical  reality 
of  His  human  pains  and  agonies  for  us.  "  Christ  died  " 
is  the  statement  which  makes  the  purpose  and  efficacy  of 
His  death  more  plain,  but  ''^  Jesus  died"  shows  us  His 
death  as  not  only  the  work  of  the  appointed  Messiah,  but 
as  the  act  of  our  brother  man,  the  outcome  of  His  human 
love,  and  never  rightly  to  be  understood  if  His  work  be 
thought  of  apart  from  His  personality. 

There  is  brought  into  view  too,  prominently,  the  side 
of  Christ's  sufferings  which  we  are  all  apt  to  forget — the 
common  human  side  of  His  agonies  and  His  pains.  I 
know  that  a  certain  school  of  preachers,  and  of  unctuous 
religious  hymns,  and  other  forms  of  composition,  dwell  a 
great  deal  too  much  for  reverence,  upon  the  mere  physical 
aspect  of  Christ's  sufferings.  But  the  temptation,  I  be- 
lieve, with  most  of  us  is  to  dwell  too  little  upon  that, — to 
argue  about  the  death  of  Christ,  to  think  about  it  as  a 
matter  of  speculation,  to  regard  it  as  a  mysterious  power, 
to  look  upon  it  as  ftn  official  act  of  the  Messiah  that  was 


278  THB  NAME  ABOVE  EVERY  NAME. 

sent  into  the  world  for  us  ;  and  to  forget  that  He  bore  a 
manhood  like  our  own,  a  body  that  was  impatient  of  pains 
and  wounds  and  sufferings,  and  a  human  life  which  like 
all  human  lives,  naturally  recoiled  and  shrank  from  the 
agony  of  death. 

And  whilst,  therefore,  the  great  message,  "  It  is  Christ 
that  died,"  is  ever  to  be  pondered,  we  have  also  to  think 
with  sympathy  and  gratitude  on  the  homelier  representa- 
tion coming  nearer  to  our  hearts,  which  proclaims  that 
"  Jesus  died."  Let  us  not  forget  the  Brother's  manhood 
that  had  to  agonise,  and  to  suffer,  and  to  die  as  the  price 
of  our  salvation. 

Again,  when  the  Scripture  would  set  our  Lord  before 
ns,  as  in  His  humanity,  our  pattern  and  example,  it  some- 
times uses  this  name,  in  order  to  give  emphasis  to  the 
thought  of  His  Manhood — as,  for  example,  in  the  words 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  "  looking  unto  Jesus,  the 
Author  and  Perf  ecter  of  faith."  That  is  to  say — a  mighty 
stimulus  to  all  brave  perseverance  in  our  efforts  after 
higher  Christian  nobleness  lies  in  the  vivid  and  constant 
realisation  of  the  true  manhood  of  our  Lord,  as  the  type 
of  all  goodness,  as  having  Himself  lived  by  faith,  and  that 
in  a  perfect  degree  and  manner.  We  are  to  turn  away  our 
eyes  from  contemplating  all  other  lives  and  motives,  and 
to  "  look  off  "  from  them  to  Him.  In  all  our  struggles  let 
us  think  of  Him.  Do  not  take  poor  human  creatures  for 
your  ideal  of  excellence,  nor  tune  your  harps  to  their  key- 
notes. To  imitate  men  is  degradation,  and  is  sure  to  lead 
to  deformity  ;  none  of  them  is  a  safe  guide.  Black  veins 
are  in  the  purest  marble,  and  flaws  in  the  most  lustrous 
diamonds  ;  but  to  imitate  Jesus  is  freedom,  and  to  be  like 
Him  is  perfection.  Our  code  of  morals  is  His  life.  He  is 
the  Ideal  incarnate.  The  secret  of  all  progress  is,  "  Run, — 
looking  unto  Jesus." 

Then,  again,  we  have  His  manhood  emphasised  when 


THE    NAME    ABOVE   EVERY   NAME.  27^ 

His  sympathy  is  to  be  commended  to  our  hearts.  "The 
great  High  Priest,  who  is  passed  into  the  heavens" 
is  "  Jesus  "  .  .  .  "  who  was  in  all  points  tempted  like 
as  we  are."  To  every  sorrowing  soul,  to  all  men  burdened 
with  heavy  tasks,  unwelcome  duties,  pains  and  sorrows  of 
the  imagination,  or  of  the  heart,  or  of  the  memory,  or  of 
physical  life,  or  of  the  circumstances — to  all  there  comes 
the  thought,  "Every  ill  that  flesh  is  heir  to"  He  knows 
by  experience,  and  in  the  Man  Jesus  we  find  not  only  the 
pity  of  a  God  but  the  sympathy  of  a  Brother. 

The  Prince  of  Wales,  a  fortnight  ago,  went  for  an  after- 
noon into  the  slums  in  Holborn  ;  and  everybody  said,  and 
said  deservedly,  "right"  and  "princely."  This  Prince  has 
"  learned  pity  in  the  huts  where  poor  men  lie "  ;  and 
knows  by  experience  all  their  squalor  and  misery.  The  Man 
Jesus  is  the  sympathetic  Priest.  The  Rabbis,  who  did  not 
usually  see  very  far  into  the  depth  of  things,  yet  caught 
a  wonderful  glimpse  when  they  said  :  "  Messias  will  be 
found  sitting  outside  the  gate  of  the  city  amojigst  the 
lejwrsy  That  is  where  He  sits  ;  and  the  perf  ectness  of  His 
sympathy,  and  the  completeness  of  His  identification  of 
Himself  with  all  our  tears  and  our  sorrows,  is  taught  us 
when  we  learn  that  our  High  Priest  is  not  merely  Christ 
the  official,  but  Jesus  the  Man. 

And  then  you  read  such  words  as  these  :  "  If  we  believe 
that  Jesus  died  and  rose  again,  even  so  them  also  which 
sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with  Him."  I  think  any- 
body that  reads  with  sympathy  must  feel  how  very  much 
closer  to  our  hearts  that  consolation  comes,  "  Jesus  rose 
again,"  than  even  the  mighty  word  which  the  Apostle 
uses  on  another  occasion,  "  Christ  is  risen  from  the  dead." 
The  one  tells  us  of  the  risen  Redeemer,  the  other  tells  ua 
of  the  risen  Brother.  And  wherever  there  are  sorrowing 
souls,  learning  loss  and  following  their  dear  ones  into  the 
darkneee  with  yearning  hearts,  there,  too,  the  consolation 


280        THE  NAME  ABOVE  EVERY  NAME. 

comes  ;  they  lie  down  beside  their  Brother,  and  with  their 
Brother  they  shall  rise  again. 

So,  again,  most  strikingly,  and  yet  somewhat  singularly, 
in  the  words  of  Scripture  which  paint  most  loftily  the  ex- 
altation of  the  risen  Saviour  to  the  right  hand  of  God,  and 
His  wielding  of  absolute  power  and  authority,  it  is  the  old 
human  name  that  is  used ;  as  if  the  writers  would  bind 
together  the  humiliation  and  the  exaltation,  and  were 
holding  up  hands  of  wonder  at  the  thought  that  a  Man 
had  risen  thus  to  the  Throne  of  the  Universe.  What  an 
emphasis  and  glow  of  hope  there  is  in  such  words  as  these 
"  We  see  not  yet  all  things  put  under  Him,  but  we  see 
Jesus''"' — the  very  Man  that  was  here  with  us — "crowned 
with  glory  and  honour."  So  in  the  Book  of  the  Revelation 
the  chosen  name  for  Him  that  sits  amidst  the  glories  of 
the  heavens,  and  settles  the  destinies  of  the  universe,  and 
orders  the  course  of  history,  is  Jesus.  As  if  the  Apostle 
would  assure  us  that  the  face  which  looked  down  upon 
him  from  amidst  the  blaze  of  the  glory  was  indeed  the 
face  that  he  knew  long  ago  upon  earth,  and  the  breast  that 
"  was  girded  with  a  golden  girdle  "  was  the  breast  upon 
which  he  so  often  had  leaned  his  happy  head. 

So  the  ties  that  bind  us  to  the  Man  Jesus  should  be  the 
human  bonds  that  knit  us  to  one  another,  transferred  to  Him 
and  purified  and  strengthened.  All  that  we  have  failed  to 
find  in  men  we  can  find  in  Him, 

Human  wisdom  has  its  limits,  but  here  is  a  Man  whose 
word  is  truth,  who  is  Himself  the  truth.  Human  love  is 
sometimes  hollow,  often  impotent ;  it  looks  down  upon  us, 
as  a  great  thinker  has  said,  like  the  Yenus  of  Milo,  that 
lovely  statue,  smiling  in  pity,  but  it  has  no  arms.  But 
here  is  a  love  that  is  mighty  to  help,  and  on  which  we  can 
rely  without  disappointment  or  loss.  Human  excellence 
is  always  limited  and  imperfect,  but  here  is  One  whom  we 
may  imitate  and  be  pure.     So  let  us  do  like  that  poor 


THE   NAME  ABOVE   EVERY   NAMB.  281 

woman  in  the  Gospel  story — bring  the  precions  alabaster 
box  of  ointment — the  love  of  these  hearts  of  ours,  which 
is  the  most  precious  thing  we  have  to  give.  The  box  of 
ointment  that  we  have  so  often  squandered  upon  un- 
worthy heads — let  us  come  and  pour  it  upon  His,  not  un- 
minglel  with  our  tears,  and  anoint  Him,  our  beloved  and 
our  King.  This  Man  has  loved  each  of  us  with  a  brother's 
heart ;  let  us  love  Him  with  all  our  hearts. 

II. — So  much  for  the  first  name.  The  second — "  Christ " 
is  the  name  of  office,  and  brings  to  us  a  Redeemer.  I 
need  not  dwell  at  any  length  upon  the  original  signifi- 
cance and  force  of  the  name  ;  it  is  familiar,  of  course,  to 
us  all.  It  stands  as  a  transference  into  Greek  of  the 
Hebrew  Messias  ;  the  one  and  the  other  meaning  as  we 
all  know,  the  Anointed. 

But  what  is  the  meaning  of  claiming  for  Christ  that  He 
is  anointed  ?  A  sentence  will  answer  the  question.  It 
means  that  He  fulfils  all  which  the  inspired  imagination 
of  the  great  ones  of  the  past  had  seen  in  that  dim  Figure 
that  rose  before  the  prophet  and  psalmist.  It  means  that 
He  is  anointed  or  inspired  by  the  Divine  indwelling  to  be 
Prophet,  Priest,  and  King  all  over  the  world.  It  means 
that  He  is — though  the  belief  had  faded  away  from  the 
minds  of  His  generation— a  sufferer  whilst  a  Prince,  and 
to  "  turn  away  unrighteousness  "  from  the  world,  and  not 
from  "  Jacob  "  only,  by  a  sacrifice  and  a  death. 

I  cannot  see  less  in  the  contents  of  the  Jewish  idea,  the 
prophetic  idea  of  the  Messias,  than  these  points  :  Divine 
inspiration  or  anointing  ;  a  sufferer  who  is  to  redeem  ; 
the  fulfiller  of  all  the  rapturous  visions  of  psalmist  and  of 
prophet  in  the  past. 

And  so,  when  Peter  stood  up  amongst  that  congregation 
of  wondering  strangers  and  scowling  Pharisees,  and  said  : 
"  The  Man  that  died  on  the  Cross,  the  Rabbi-peasant  from 
half-heathen  Galilee,  is  the  Person  Whom  all  the  genera- 


282       THE  NAME  ABOVE  EVERY  NAME. 

tions  have  been  looking  forward  to,"  no  wonder  that 
nobody  believed  him  except  those  whose  hearts  were 
touched,  for  it  is  never  possible  for  the  common  mind,  at 
any  epoch,  to  believe  that  the  man  that  stands  beside  them 
is  very  much  bigger  than  themselves.  Great  men  have 
always  to  die,  and  get  a  halo  of  distance  around  them 
before  their  true  stature  can  be  seen. 

And  now  two  remarks  are  all  I  can  afford  myself  upon 
that,  and  one  is  this :  the  hearty  recognition  of  His 
Messiahship  is  the  centre  of  all  discipleship.  The  eailiest 
and  the  simplest  Christian  creed,  which  yet — like  the  little 
brown  roll  in  which  the  infant  beech  leaves  lie  folded  up 
— contains  in  itself  all  the  rest,  was  thia  :  "  Jesus  is 
Christ,"  and  although  it  is  no  part  of  my  business  to  say 
how  much  imperfection  and  confusion  of  head  compre- 
hension may  exist  with  a  heart  acceptance  of  Jesus  that 
eaves  a  soul  from  sin,  yet  I  cannot  in  faithfulness  to  my 
own  convictions  conceal  the  belief  that  he  who  contents 
himself  with  "Jesus"  and  does  not  grasp  "  Christ"  has 
cast  away  the  most  valuable  and  characteristic  part  of  the 
Christianity  which  he  professes.  Surely  the  most  simple 
inference  is  that  a  Christian  is  at  least  a  man  who  recog- 
nises the  Christship  of  Jesus.  And  I  press  that  upon  you, 
my  friends  ;  it  is  not  enough  for  the  sustenance  of  your 
own  souls  and  for  the  cultivation  of  a  vigorous  religious 
life  that  men  should  admire,  howsoever  profoundly  and 
deeply  the  humanity  of  the  Lord  unless  that  humanity 
leads  them  on  to  see  the  office  of  the  Messiah  to  whom 
their  whole  hearts  cleave.  "  Jesus  is  the  Christ "  is  the 
minimum  Christian  creed. 

And  then,  still  further,  let  me  remind  yon  how  the 
recognition  of  Jesus  as  Christ  is  essential  to  giving  its  full 
value  to  the  facts  of  the  manhood.  "  Jesus  died  I  Yes  ! 
What  then  ?  What  is  that  to  me  ?  Is  that  all  I  have  to 
tay  ?    If  that  is  simply  a  human  death,  like  all  the  rest,  I 


THE  NAME  ABOVE  EVERY  NAME.  283 

want  to  know  what  makes  it  a  Gospel.  1  want  to  know 
what  more  interest  I  have  in  it  than  I  have  in  the  death 
of  Socrates,  or  in  the  death  of  any  men  or  women  whose 
names  were  in  the  obituary  column  of  yesterday's  news- 
paper. "Jesus  died."  That  is  the  fact.  What  is  wanted 
to  turn  the  fact  into  a  Gospel  ?  That  I  shall  know  Who 
it  was  that  died,  and  why  lie  died.  "  I  declare  unto  you 
the  Gospel  which  I  preach,"  Paul  says,  "how  that  Christ 
died  for  our  sins,  according  to  the  Scriptures."  The  belief 
that  the  death  of  Jesus  was  the  death  of  the  Christ  is  need- 
ful to  make  that  death  the  means  of  my  deliverance  from 
the  burden  of  sin.  If  it  be  only  the  death  of  Jesus,  it  is 
beautiful,  pathetic,  as  many  another  martyr's  has  been, 
but  if  it  be  the  death  of  Christ,  then  "my  faith  can  lay 
her  hand"  on  that  great  sacrifice  and  know  "  her  guilt  was 

there." 

So  in  regard  of  His  perfect  example.  If  we  only  see 
His  manhood  when  we  are  "looking  unto  Jesus,"  the 
contemplation  of  His  perfection  would  be  as  paralysing 
as  spectacles  of  supreme  excellence  usually  are.  But 
when  we  can  say, "  ChHst  also  suffered  for  us,  leaving  us  an 
example,"  and  so  can  deepen  the  thought  of  His  ISIanhood 
into  that  of  His  Messiahship  and  the  conception  of  His 
work  as  example  into  that  of  His  work  as  sacrifice,  we  can 
hope  that  His  Divine  power  will  dwell  in  us  to  mould 
our  lives  to  the  Ukeness  of  His  human  life  of  perfect 

obedience. 

So  in  regard  to  His  resurrection  and  glorious  ascension 
at  the  right  hand  of  God.  We  have  not  only  to  think  of 
the  solitary  man  raised  from  the  grave  and  caught  up  to 
the  throne.  If  it  were  only  "Jesus"  Who  rose  and 
ascended,  His  resurrection  and  ascension  might  be  as 
much  to  us  as  the  raising  of  Lazarus,  or  the  rapture  of 
Elijah— namely,  a  demonstration  that  death  did  not 
destroy  conscious  being,  and  that  a  man   could  rise  to 


S84  THB  NAME   ABOVE  BYBBT  NAMB. 

Heaven,  bnt  they  would  be  no  more.  But  if  "  Christ  ie 
risen  from  the  dead,"  He  is  "  become  the  first-fruits  of 
them  that  slept."  If  Jesus  has  gone  up  on  high,  others 
may  or  may  not  follow  in  His  train.  It  may  show  that 
manhood  is  not  incapable  of  elevation  to  heaven,  but  it 
has  no  power  to  draw  othei^  up  after  it.  But  if  Christ  is 
gone  up  He  is  gone  to  prepare  a  place  for  us,  not  to  fill  a 
solitary  throne,  and  His  ascension  is  the  assurance  that  He 
will  lift  us  ioo  to  dwell  with  Him,  and  share  His  triumph 
over  death  and  sin. 

Most  of  the  blessedness  and  beauty  of  His  example,  all 
the  mystery  and  meaning  of  His  death,  and  all  the  power 
of  His  resurrection  depend  on  the  fact  that  "  it  is  Christ 
that  died,  yea  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  who  is  even  at 
the  right  hand  of  God." 

III. — "The  Lord"  is  the  name  of  dignity  and  brings 
before  us  the  King.  There  are  three  grades,  so  to  speak, 
of  dignity  expressed  by  this  one  word  "  Lord  "  in  the  New 
Testament.  The  lowest  is  that  in  which  it  is  almost  the 
equivalent  of  our  own  English  title  of  respectful  courtesy, 
"  Sir,"  in  which  sense  it  is  often  used  in  the  Gospels,  and 
refers  to  our  Lord  as  to  many  other  of  the  persons  there. 
The  second  is  that  in  which  it  expresses  dignity  and 
authority — and  in  that  sense  it  is  frequently  applied  to 
Christ.  The  third  highest  is  that  in  which  it  is  the  equiv^ 
alent  of  the  Old  Testament  "  Lord,"  as  a  Divine  name  ;  in 
which  sense  also  it  is  applied  to  Christ  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

The  first  and  last  of  these  may  be  left  out  of  consideration 
now  :  the  central  one  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  here. 
I  have  only  time  to  touch  upon  two  thoughts — to  connect 
this  name  of  dignity  first  with  one  and  then  with  the  other 
of  the  two  names  that  we  have  already  considered. 

"  Jesus  is  Lord,"  that  is  to  say,  wonderful  as  it  is,  the 
manhood  ii  exalted  to  supreme  dignity.    It  is  the  teaching 


THE  NAME  AbOVB   EVERY   NAME.  285 

of  the  New  TeBtament,  that  onr  nature  in  Jesns,  the  Child 
of  Mary,  sits  on  the  throne  of  the  universe  and  rules  over 
all  things.  Those  rude  herdsmen,  brothers  of  Joseph, 
came  into  Pharaoh's  palace — strange  contrast  to  their  tenta 
— and  there  found  their  brother  ruling  over  that  ancient  and 
highly  civilised  land  I  We  have  the  Man  Jesus  for  the 
Lord  over  all.  Trust  His  dominion  and  rejoice  in  Hie 
rule,  and  bow  before  His  authority.     Jesus  is  Lord. 

Christ  is  Lord.  That  is  to  say  :  His  sovereign  authority, 
•nd  dominion  are  built  upon  the  fact  of  His  being 
Deliverer,  Redeemer,  Sacrifice.  His  Kingdom  is  a  King- 
dom that  rests  upon  His  suffering.  '*  Wherefore  God  alsG 
hath  exalted  Him,  and  given  Him  a  name  that  is  above 
every  name." 

It  is  because  He  wears  a  vesture  dipped  in  blood,  that 
on  the  vesture  is  the  name  written  "  Kings  of  kings,  and 
Lord  of  lords."  It  is  "because  He  shall  deliver  the 
needy  when  he  crieth,"  as  the  prophetic  psalm  has  it,  that 
**  all  kings  shall  fall  down  before  Him  and  all  nations  shall 
serve  Him."  Because  He  has  given  His  life  for  the  world 
He  is  the  Master  of  the  world.  His  humanity  is  raised  to 
the  throne  because  His  humanity  stooped  to  the  cross. 
As  long  as  men's  hearts  can  be  touched  by  absolute  un- 
selfish surrender  ;  and  as  long  as  men  can  know  the 
blessedness  of  responsive  surrender,  so  long  will  He  who 
gave  Himself  for  the  world  be  the  Sovereign  of  the  woild, 
and  the  First-born  from  the  dead  be  the  Prince  of  all  the 
kings  of  the  earth. 

And  so,  dear  friends,  our  thoughts  to-day  all  poiat  to 
this  lesson.  Do  not  you  content  yourselves  with  a  maimed 
Christ.  Do  not  tarry  in  the  Manhood  ;  do  not  be  content 
with  an  adoring  reverence  for  the  nobility  of  His  soul,  the 
gentle  wisdom  of  His  words,  the  beauty  of  His  character, 
the  tenderness  of  His  compassion.  All  that  will  be  of 
small  help  for  your  needs.     There  is  more  in  Hie  mission 


286  THE  NAME  ABOVE  EVERY  NAME. 

than  that — even  His  death  for  you  and  for  all  men.  Take 
Him  for  your  Christ,  but  do  not  lose  the  Person  in  the 
Work,  any  more  than  you  lose  the  Work  in  the  Person 
And  be  not  content  with  an  intellectual  recognition  of 
Him,  but  bring  Him  the  faith  which  cleaves  to  Him  and 
His  work  as  its  only  hope  and  peace,  and  the  love  which, 
because  of  His  work  as  Christ,  flows  out  to  the  beloved 
Person  Who  has  done  it  all.  Thus  loving  Jesus  and 
trusting  Christ,  you  will  bring  obedience  to  your  Lord 
and  homage  to  your  King,  and  learn  the  sweetness  and 
power  of  the  name  that  is  above  every  name — the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

May  we  all  be  able,  with  clear  and  unfaltering  con- 
viction of  the  understanding  and  loving  affiance  of  our 
whole  souls,  to  repeat  as  our  own  the  grand  words  in 
which  so  many  centuries  have  proclaimed  their  faith — 
words  which  shed  a  spell  of  peacefulness  over  stormy 
lives,  and  fling  a  great  light  of  hope  into  the  black  jaws  of 
the  grave.  "  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  His  only  Son,  our 
Lord  I " 


THE  SON  OF  MAN. 


8ERM0N  XXIL 


THB    SON  OP  MA». 
"Who  iB  this  Son  of  Man ?"    John  zll.  M. 

Last  Sunday,  as  you  may  rojr  ember,  we  were  consid- 
ering the  names  given  in  Scni)txire  to  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  I  have  thought  that  a  suitable  sequel  to  that 
sermon  may  be  one  devoted  to  the  consideration  of  the 
remarkable  name  which  our  Lord  gives  to  Himself — 
the  Son  of  Man.  And  I  have  selected  this  instance  of  itf 
occurrence  rather  than  any  other  because  it  brings  out 
a  point  which  is  too  frequently  overlooked,  viz.,  that  the 
name  was  an  entirely  strange  and  enigmatical  one  to  the 
people  who  heard  it. 

This  question  of  utter  bewilderment  distinctly  shows  us 
that,  and  negatives,  as  it  seems  to  me,  the  sui^position 
which  is  often  made  that  the  name  "  Son  of  Man  "  upon 
the  lips  of  Jesus  Christ  was  equivalent  to  Messiah. 
Obviously  there  is  no  such  significance  attached  to  it  by 
those  who  put  this  question.  As  obviously,  for  another 
reason,  the  two  names  do  not  cover  the  same  ground  ;  for 

U 


290  THE    SON    OP    MAN. 

our  Lord  sedulously  avoided  calling  Himself  the  Christ, 
and  habitually  called  Himself  the  Son  of  Man. 

Now  one  thing  to  observe  about  this  name  is  that  it  is 
never  found  upon  the  lips  of  any  but  Jesus  Christ.  No 
man  ever  called  Him  the  Son  of  Man  whilst  He  was  upon 
earth,  and  only  once  do  we  find  it  applied  to  Him  in  the 
rest  of  Scripture,  and  that  is  on  the  occasion  on  which 
the  first  martyr,  Stephen,  dying  at  the  foot  of  the  old  wall, 
saw  "  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  Man  standing 
at  the  right  hand  of  God."  Two  other  apparent  instances 
of  the  use  of  the  expression  occur,  both  of  them  in  the 
Book  of  Revelation,  both  of  them  quotations  from  the  Old 
Testament,  and  in  both  the  more  probable  reading  gives  : — 
A  Son  of  Man,  not  "  the  Son  of  Man." 

One  more  preliminary  remark,  and  I  will  pass  to  the 
title  itself.  The  name  has  been  often  supposed  to  be 
taken  from  the  remarkable  prophecy  in  the  Book  of  Daniel, 
of  one  "  like  a  Son  of  man,"  who  receives  from  the  Ancient 
of  Days  an  everlasting  kingdom  which  triumphs  over 
those  kingdoms  of  brute  force  which  the  prophet  had  seen. 
No  doubt  there  is  a  connection  between  the  prophecy  and 
our  Lord's  use  of  the  name,  and  it  is  to  be  observed  that 
what  the  prophet  speaks  of  is  not — "  the  Son, "  but "  one  like  a 
Son  of  man,"  or  in  other  words,  that  what  the  prophecy 
dwells  upon  is  simply  the  manhood  of  the  future  King  in 
contradistinction  to  the  bestial  forms  of  Lion  and  Leopard 
and  Bear,  whose  kingdoms  go  down  before  him.  Of 
course  Christ  fulfils  that  prediction,  and  is  the  "  One  like 
a  Son  of  man,"  but  we  cannot  say  that  the  title  is  derived 
from  the  prophecy,  in  which,  strictly  speaking,  it  does  not 
occur. 

What,  then,  is  the  force  of  this  name,  as  applied  to 
Himself  by  our  Lord  ? 

First,  we  have  in  it  Christ  putting  out  His  hand,  if  I 
may  say  so,  to  draw  us  to  Himself,  identifying  Himself 


THE    SON    OF    MAN.  291 

with  UB.  Then  we  have,  just  as  distinctly,  Christ,  by  the 
nse  of  this  name,  in  a  very  real  sense  distinguishing 
Himself  from  us,  and  claiming  to  hold  a  unique  and 
solitary  relation  to  mankind.  And  then  we  have  Christ, 
by  the  use  of  this  name  in  its  connection  with  the  ancient 
prophecy,  pointing  us  onward  to  a  wonderful  future. 

I.— First    then,     Christ    thereby     identifies     Himself 
with    us.       The    name    Son    of    Man,    whatever    more 
it  means,  declares  the  historical  fact  of  His  Incarnation 
and    the    reality    and    genuineness,    the    completeness 
and    fulness    of    His    assumption   of   humanity.     And 
so   it   is    significant  to    notice    that   the    name    is    em- 
ployed   continually    in   the    places  in    Scripture    where 
especial  emphasis  is  to  be  placed,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
upon  our  Lord's   manhood.      As   for  instance  when  He 
would  brincr  into  view  the  depth  of  His  humiliation.      It 
is  this  name  that  He  uses  when  He  says  :    "  Foxes  have 
holes  and  the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests,  but  the  Son  of 
Man  hath  not  where  to  lay  His  head."     The  use  of  the 
term  there  is  very  significant  and  profound  ;  He  contrasts 
His   homelessness,    not   with    the   homes   of    men   that 
dwell    in   palaces,   but   with  the  homes  of  the  inferior 
creatures.      As  if  He  would  say,  "  Not  merely  am  I  indi- 
vidually homeless  and  shelterless,  but  I  am  so  because  I 
am  truly  a  man,  the  only  creature  that  builds  houses, 
and   the    only   creature    that  has    not  a   home.     Foxes 
have  holes,   anywhere  they   can  rest,  the  birds  of  the 
air  have"-not  as  our  Bible  gives  it-" nests,'  but  "roost- 
ing  places  ;    any  bough  will  do  for  them.      All    living 
creatures  are  at   home  in  this  material  universe  ;  T,  as  a 
Representative   of   humanity,   wander  a   pilgrim   and   a 
soiourner."  We  are  all  restless  and  homeless  ;  the  creatures 
correspond  to  their  environment.      We  have  d-ires  and 
longings,   wild   yearnings,   and   deep-seated    needs,   that 
Cande;  through  eternity  ;"  the  Son  of  Man,  the  repre- 

U  2 


292  THE    SON     OP     MAN. 

sentative    of    manhood  — "  hath  not  where  to  lay   His 

head." 

Then  the  same  expression  is  employed  on  occasions 
■when  our  Lord  desires  to  emphasise  the  completeness  of 
His  participation  in  all  onr  conditions.  As,  for  instance, 
"the  Son  of  Man  came  eating  and  drinking,"  knowing 
the  ordinary  limitations  and  necessities  of  corporeal  hu- 
manity ;  having  the  ordinary  dependence  upon  external 
things  ;  nor  unwilling  to  taste,  with  pure  and  thankful 
lip,  whatever  gladnesses  may  be  found  in  man*s  path 
through  the  supply  of  natural  appetites. 

And  the  name  is  employed  habitually  on  occasions 
when  He  desires  to  emphasise  His  manhood  as  having 
truly  taken  upon  itself  the  whole  weight  and  weariness  of 
man's  sin,  and  the  whole  burden  of  man's  guilt,  and  the 
whole  tragicalness  of  the  penalties  thereof.  As  in  the 
familiar  passages,  so  numerous  that  I  need  only  refer  to 
them  and  need  not  attempt  to  quote  them,  in  which  we 
read  of  the  Son  of  Man  being  betrayed  into  the  hands  of 
sinners  ;  in  those  words,  for  instance,  which  so  marvel- 
lously blend  the  lowliness  of  the  Man  and  the  lofty 
consciousness  of  the  mysterious  relation  which  He  bears 
to  the  whole  world  :  "  The  Son  of  Man  came,  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to  give  His  life  a 
ransom  for  the  many." 

Now  if  we  gather  all  these  instances  (and  they  are  only 
siDecimens  culled  almost  at  random)  together,  and  medi- 
tate for  a  moment  on  the  name  as  illuminated  by  such 
words  as  these,  they  suggest  to  us,  first,  how  truly  and 
how  blessedly  He  is  "  bone  of  our  bone,  and  flesh  of  our 
flesh."  All  our  human  joys  were  His.  He  knew  all 
human  sorrow.  The  ordinary  wants  of  human  nature 
belonged  to  Him  ;  He  hungered.  He  thirsted  and  was 
weary  ;  He  ate  and  drank  and  slept.  The  ordinary  wants 
of  the  banian  heart  He  knew  ; — He  was  hurt  by  hatred, 
itnng  by  ingratitude,   yearned    for  love  ;    His  spirit  ex- 


THE    SON    OF    MAM.  293 

jMnded  amongst  friends  and  was  pained  when  they  fell 
away.  He  fought  and  toiled,  and  sorrowed  and  enjoyed. 
He  had  to  pray,  to  trust  and  to  weep.  He  was  a  Son  of 
Man,  a  true  man  among  men.  His  life  was  brief ;  we 
have  but  fragmentary  records  of  it  for  three  short  years. 
In  outward  form  it  covers  but  a  narrow  area  of  human 
experience,  and  large  tracts  of  human  life  seem  to  be 
unrepresented  in  it.  Yet  all  ages  and  classes  of  men, 
in  all  circumstances,  however  unlike  those  of  the 
peasant  Rabbi  who  died  when  He  was  just  entering 
mature  manhood,  may  feel  that  this  Man  comes  closer 
to  them  than  all  beside.  Whether  for  stimulus  for  duty, 
or  for  grace  and  patience  in  sorrow,  or  for  restraint  in 
enjoyment,  or  for  the  hallowing  of  all  circumstances 
and  all  tasks,  the  presence  and  example  of  the  Son  of 
Man  are  sufficient.  \.herever  we  go,  we  may  track  His 
footsteps  by  the  drops  of  His  blood  upon  the  sharp  flints 
that  we  have  to  tread.  In  all  narrow  passes,  where  the 
briars  tear  the  wool  of  the  flock,  we  may  see,  left  there  on 
the  thorns,  what  they  rent  from  the  pure  fleece  of  the 
Lamb  of  God  that  went  before.  The  Son  of  Man  is  our 
Brother  and  our  Example. 

And  is  it  not  beautiful,  and  does  it  not  speak  to  ub 
fcOuchingly  and  sweetly  of  our  Lord's  earnest  desire  to  get 
very  near  us  and  to  bring  us  very  near  to  Him,  that  this 
name,  which  emphasises  humiliation  and  weakness,  and 
the  likeness  to  ourselves,  should  be  the  name  that  is 
always  upon  His  lips  ?  Just  as,  if  I  may  compare  great 
things  with  small,  some  teacher  or  philanthropist  that 
went  away  from  civilised  into  savage  life,  might  leave 
behind  him  the  name  by  which  he  was  known  in  Europe, 
and  adopt  some  barbarous  designation  that  was  significant 
in  the  language  of  the  savage  tribe  to  whom  he  was  sent, 
and  say  to  them  "  That  is  my  name  now,  call  me  by  that "  : 
—so  this  great  Leader  of  our  souls  that  has  lauded  upon 


894  THE    SON    OF    MAN. 

our  coasts  with  His  hands  full  of  blessings,  His  heart  fnll 
of  love,  has  taken  a  name  that  makes  Him  one  of  ourselves, 
and  is  never  wearied  of  speaking  to  our  hearts  and  telling 
US  that  it  is  that  by  which  He  chooses  to  be  known.  It  is 
a  touch  of  the  same  infinite  condescension  which  prompted 
His  coming,  that  makes  Him  choose  as  His  favourite  and 
habitual  designation  the  name  of  weakness  and  identifica- 
tion, the  name  "  Son  of  Man." 

II. — But,  now,  turn  to  what  is  equally  distinct  and  clear 
in  this  title.  Here  we  have  our  Lord  distinguishing  Him- 
self from  us,  and  plainly  claiming  an  unique  relationship 
to  the  whole  world. 

Just  fancy  how  absurd  it  would  be  for  one  of  us  to  be 
perpetually  insisting  on  the  fact  that  he  was  a  man,  to  be 
taking  that  as  his  continual  description  of  himself,  and 
pressing  it  upon  people's  attention  as  if  there  was  some- 
thing strange  about  it  I  The  idea  is  preposterous  ;  and 
the  very  frequency  and  emphasis  with  which  the  name 
comes  from  our  Lord's  lips  lead  one  to  suspect  that  there 
is  something  lying  behind  it  more  than  appears  on  the 
surface.  That  impression  is  confirmed  and  made  a  con- 
viction if  you  mark  the  article  which  is  prefixed,  the  Son 
of  Man.  A  son  of  man  is  a  very  different  idea.  When  He 
says  "  the  Son  of  Man  "  He  seems  to  declare  that  in  Him- 
self there  are  gathered  up  all  the  qualities  that  constitute 
humanity  ;  that  He  is,  to  use  modern  language,  the  realised 
Ideal  of  manhood,  the  typical  Man,  in  Whom  is  every- 
thing that  belongs  to  manhood,  and  Who  stands  forth  as 
complete  and  perfect. 

Appropriately,  then,  the  name  is  cdntinually  used  with 
suggestions  of  authority  and  dignity  contrasting  with 
those  of  humiliation.  "  The  Son  of  Man  is  Lord  of  the 
Sabbath.'*  "The  Son  of  Man  hath  power  on  earth  to 
forgive  sins,"  and  the  like.  So  that  you  cannot  get  away 
from  this,  that  this  Man  Whom  the  whole  world  has  con- 


THB    SON    OP    MAN.  295 

spired  to  profess  to  admire  for  His  gentleness,  and  His 
meekness,  and  His  lowliness,  and  His  religious  sanity, 
stood  forward  and  said  :  "  I  am  complete  and  perfect,  and 
everything  that  belongs  to  manhood  you  will  find  in  Me." 

And  it  is  very  significant  in  this  connection  that  the 
designation  occurs  more  frequently  in  the  first  three 
Gospels  than  in  the  fourth  ;  which  is  alleged  to  present 
higher  notions  of  the  nature  and  personality  of  Jesus 
Christ  than  are  found  in  the  other  three.  There  are  more 
instances  in  Matthew's  Gospel  in  which  our  Lord  calls 
Himself  the  Son  of  Man,  with  all  the  implication  of 
uniqueness  and  completeness  which  that  name  carries, 
there  are  more  even  in  the  Gospel  of  the  Servant — the 
Gospel  according  to  Mark — than  in  the  Gospel  of  the 
Word  of  God,  the  Gospel  according  to  John.  And  so  I 
think  we  are  entitled  to  say  that  by  this  name,  which  the 
testimony  of  all  four  Gospels  makes  it  certain,  even  to  the 
most  suspicious  reader,  that  Christ  applied  to  Himself,  He 
declared  His  humanity,  His  absolutely  perfect  and  com- 
plete humanity. 

In  substance  He  is  claiming  the  same  thing  for  Himself 
that  Paul  claimed  for  Him  when  he  called  Him  the  second 
Adam.  There  have  been  two  men  in  the  world,  says  Paul, 
the  fallen  Adam,  with  his  infantile  and  undeveloped  per- 
fections, and  the  Christ,  with  His  full  and  complete 
humanity.  All  other  men  are  fragments.  He  is  the  "  entire 
and  perfect  chrysolite."  As  one  of  our  epigrammatic  seven- 
teenth century  divines  has  it,  "  Aristotle  is  but  the  rubbish 
of  an  Adam,"  and  Adam  is  but  the  dim  outline  sketch  of  a 
Jesus.  Between  these  two  there  have  been  none.  The 
one  Man  as  God  meant  him,  the  type  of  man,  the  perfect 
humanity,  the  realised  ideal,  the  home  of  all  the  powers 
of  manhood,  is  He  who  Himself  claimed  that  place  for 
Himself,  and  stepped  into  it  with  the  strange  words  upon 
His  lips — "  I  am  meek  and  lowly  of  heart." 


296  THE    SON    OF    MAN. 

"  Who  is  this  Son  of  Man  ?  "  Ah  !  brethren,  "  who  can 
bring  a  clean  thing  out  of  an  unclean  ?  Not  one."  A  per- 
fect Son  of  Man,  born  of  a  woman,  "  bone  of  our  bone  and 
flesh  of  our  flesh,"  must  be  more  than  a  Son  of  Man.  And 
that  moral  completeness  and  that  ideal  perfection  in  all  the 
faculties  and  parts  of  His  nature  which  drove  the  betraj^er 
to  clash  down  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  in  the  sanctuary 
in  despair  that  "  he  had  betrayed  innocent  blood  ; "  which 
made  Pilate  wash  his  hands  "  of  the  blood  of  this  just 
person  ; "  which  stopped  the  mouths  of  the  adversaries 
when  He  challenged  them  to  convince  Him  of  sin,  and 
which  all  the  world  ever  since  has  recognised  and  honoured, 
ought  surely  to  lead  us  to  ask  the  question,  "  Who  is  this 
Son  of  Man  ? "  and  to  answer  it,  as  I  pray  we  all  may 
answer  it,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God." 

This  fact  of  absolute  completeness  invests  His  work 
with  an  altogether  unique  relationship  to  the  rest  of  man- 
kind. And  so  we  find  the  name  employed  upon  His  own 
lips  in  connections  in  which  He  desires  to  set  Himself 
forth  as  the  single  and  solitary  medium  of  all  blessing  and 
salvation  to  the  world.  As  for  instance,  "  The  Son  of  Man 
came  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  the  many  ; "  "  Ye  shall 
see  the  Heavens  opened,  and  the  angels  of  God  ascending 
and  descending  on  the  Son  of  Man."  He  is  what  the  ladder 
was  in  the  vision  to  the  patriarch,  with  his  head  upon  the 
stone  and  the  Syrian  sky  over  him — the  Medium  of  all 
communication  between  earth  and  Heaven.  And  thai 
ladder  which  joins  Heaven  to  earth,  and  brings  all  angel 
down  on  the  solitary  watchers  comes  straight  down,  as  tli* 
sunbeams  do,  to  every  man  wherever  h^  is.  Each  of  ii. 
sees  the  shortest  line  from  his  own  standing  place  to  the 
central  light,  and  its  beams  come  straight  to  the  apple  of 
each  man's  eye.  So  because  Christ  is  more  than  a  man, 
because  He  is  the  Man,  His  blessings  come  to  each  of  us 
direct  and  straight,  as  if  they  had  been  launched  from  the 


THE    SON    OF    MAN.  297 

throne  with  a  pnrpose  and  a  message  to  us  alone.  Thus 
He  who  is  in  flimself  perfect  manhood  touches  all  men, 
and  all  men  touch  Him,  and  the  Son  of  Man,  whom  God 
hath  sealed,  will  give  to  every  one  of  us  the  bread  from 
heaven.  The  unique  relationship  which  brings  Him  into 
connection  with  every  soul  of  man  upon  earth,  and  makes 
Him  the  Saviour,  Helper,  and  Friend  of  us  all,  is  expressed 
when  He  calls  Himself  the  Son  of  Man. 

III. — And  now  one  last  word  in  regard  to  the  predictive 
character  of  this  designation.  Even  if  we  cannot  rei^'ard  it 
as  being  actually  a  quotation  of  the  prophecy  in  the  Hook 
of  Daniel,  there  is  an  evident  allusion  to  that  propliecy, 
and  to  the  whole  circle  of  ideas  presented  by  it  of  an  ever- 
lasting dominion,  which  shall  destroy  all  antagonistic 
power,  and  of  a  solemn  coming  for  judgment  of  one  like 
a  Son  of  Man. 

We  find,  then,  the  name  occurring  on  our  Lord's  lips 
very  frequently  in  that  class  of  passages  with  which  we 
are  so  familiar  ;  and  which  are  so  n-nuerous  that  I  need 
not  quote  them  to  .you  ;  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  second 
coming  of  the  Son  of  Man.  As,  for  instance,  that  one 
which  connects  itself  most  distinctly  with  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  the  words  of  high  solemn  import  before  the  tribu- 
nal of  the  High  Priest.  "  Hereafter  shall  ye  see  the  Son  of 
Man  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  power,  and  coming  in  the 
LT lories  of  heaven."  Or,  as  when  He  says,  "  He  hath  given 
Him  authority  to  execute  judgment  also  because  He  is  the 
Son  of  Man."  Or  as  when  the  proto-martyr,  with  his  last 
words,  declared  in  sudden  burst  of  surprise  and  thrill  of 
gladness,  "  1  see  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  Man 
standing  at  the  ritiht  hand  of  God. 

Two  thoughts  are  all  that  I  can  touch  on  here.  The  name 
carries  with  it  a  blessed  message  of  the  preseiit  activity 
and  perpetual  manhood  of  the  risen  Lord.  Stephen  does  not 
see  Him  as  all  the  rest  of  Scripture  paints  Him,  sitting  at 


298  THE    SON    OF    MAll. 

the  right  hand  of  God,  but  standing  there.  The  emblem  of 
His  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God  represents  triumphant 
calmness  in  the  undisturbed  confidence  of  victory.  It  de- 
clares the  completeness  of  the  work  that  He  has  done  upon 
earth,  and  that  all  the  history  of  the  future  is  but  the  un- 
folding of  the  consequences  of  that  work  which  by  His  own 
testimony  was  finished  when  He  bowed  His  head  and  died. 
But  the  dying  martyr  sees  Him  standing^  as  if  He  had 
sprung  to  His  feet  in  response  to  the  cry  of  faith  from  the 
first  of  the  long  train  of  sufferers.  As  if  the  Emperor  upon 
His  seat,  looking  down  upon  the  arena  where  the 
gladiators  are  contending  to  the  death,  could  not  sit  quiet 
amongst  the  flashing  axes  of  the  lictors  and  the  purple 
curtains  of  His  throne,  and  see  their  death-struggles,  but 
must  spring  to  His  feet  to  help  them ;  or  at  least  bend 
down  with  the  look  and  with  the  reality  of  sympathy.  So 
Christ,  the  Son  of  Man,  bearing  His  manhood  with  Him, 

"Still  bends  on  earth  a  brother's  eye ;" 

and  is  the  ever-present  Helper  of  all  struggling  souls  that 
put  their  trust  in  Him. 

Then  as  to  the  other  and  main  thought  here  in  view — 
the  second  coming  of  that  perfect  Manhood  to  be  our 
Judge.  It  is  too  solemn  a  subject  for  human  lips  to  say 
much  about.  It  has  been  vulgarised,  and  the  power  taken 
out  of  it  by  many  well-meant  attempts  to  impress  it  upon 
men's  hearts.  But  that  coming  is  certain.  That  manhood 
eould  not  end  its  relationship  to  us  with  the  Cross,  nor  yet 
with  the  slow,  solemn,  upward  progress  which  bore  Him, 
pouring  down  blessings,  up  into  the  same  bright  cloud 
that  had  dwelt  between  the  cherubim  and  had  received 
Him  into  its  mysterious  recesses  at  the  Transfiguration. 
That  He  should  come  again  is  the  only  possible  completion 
of  His  work. 

That  Judge  is  our  brother.  So  in  the  deepest  sense  we 
are  tried  by  our  Peer.     Man's  knowledge  at  »♦?  Mfirhest 


THE  SON   OP  MAN. 

cannot  tell  the  moral  desert  of  anything  that  any  man  doea. 
You  may  judge  action,  you  may  sentence  for  breaches  of 
law,  you  may  declare  a  man  clear  of  any  blame  for  such, 
but  for  any  man  to  read  the  secrets  of  another  man's  heart 
is  beyond  human  power  ;  and  if  he  were  only  a  man  that 
is  the  Judge  there  will  be  wild  work,  and  many  a  blunder 
in  the  sentences  that  are  given.  But  when  we  think  that 
it  is  the  Son  of  Man  that  is  our  Judge,  then  we  know  that 
the  Omniscience  of  Divinity,  that  ponders  the  hearts  and 
reads  the  motives,  will  be  all  blended  with  the  tenderness 
and  sympathy  of  Humanity  ;  that  we  shall  be  judged  by 
One  who  knows  all  our  frame,  not  only  with  the  know- 
ledge of  a  Maker,  if  I  may  so  say,  as  from  outside,  but 
with  the  knowledge  of  a  possessor,  as  from  within  ;  that 
we  shall  be  judged  by  One  who  has  fought  and  conquered 
in  all  temptations  ;  and  most  blessed  of  all,  that  we  shall 
be  judged  by  On©  with  whom  w^e  have  only  to  plead  His 
own  work  and  His  own  love  and  His  Cross  that  we  may 
Btand  acquitted  before  His  throne. 

So,  brethren,  in  that  one  mighty  name  all  the  past, 
present,  and  future  are  gathered  and  blended  together. 
In  the  past  His  Cross  fills  the  retrospect :  for  the  future 
there  rises  up  white  and  solemn,  His  Judgment  throne. 
**  The  Son  of  Man  is  come  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for 
the  many."  That  is  the  centre  point  of  all  history.  The 
Son  of  man  sJiall  come  to  judge  the  world.  That  is  the 
one  thought  that  fills  the  future.  Let  us  lay  hold  by  true 
faith  on  the  mighty  work  which  He  has  done  on  the 
Cross,  then  w^e  shall  rejoice  to  see  our  Brother  on  the 
throne,  when  the  "judgment  is  set  and  the  books  are 
opened."  Oh,  friends,  cleave  to  Him  ever  in  trust  and 
love,  in  communion  and  imitation,  in  obedience  and  con- 
fession, that  ye  may  be  accounted  worthy  "  to  stand  before 
the  Son  of  Man  "  in  that  day. 


TWO  FORTRESSBS. 


SERMON  XXIIL 


TWO   FORTRESSBa 

"  The  name  of  the  Lord  Is  a  strong  tower  :  the  righteous  runneth  into  it,  and  is  safe 
The  rich  man's  wealth  is  hJj  strong  city,  and  ai  a  high  wall  in  hia  own  conceit." 
Proverbs  xviii.  10,  11. 

The  mere  reading  of  these  two  verses  shows  that,  con- 
trary to  the  usual  rule  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  they  have 
a  bearing  on  each  other.  They  are  intended  to  suggest  a 
very  strong  contrast,  and  that  contrast  is  even  more 
emphatic  in  the  original  than  in  our  translation  ;  because, 
as  the  margin  of  your  Bibles  will  tell  you,  the  last  word 
of  the  former  verse  might  be  more  correctly  rendered, 
"  the  righteous  runneth  into  it  and  is  set  on  high"  It  is 
the  same  word  which  is  employed  in  the  next  verse : — 
"  a  high  wall." 

So  we  have  "  the  strong  tower  "  and  "  the  strong  city  "  ; 
the  man  lifted  up  above  danger  on  the  battlements  of  the 
one,  and  the  man  fancying  himself  to  be  high  above  it,  (and 
only  fancying  himself)  in  the  imaginary  safety  of  the  other. 

I. — Consider  then,  first,  the  two  fortresses. 

One  need  only  name  them  side  by  side  to  feel  the  full 
force  of  the  intended  contrast.     On  the  one  hand,  the  Name 


304  TWO   FORTRESSBS. 

of  the  Lord  with  all  its  depths  and  glories,  with  its  blaze  of 
lustrous  purity,  and  infinitudes  of  inexhaustible  power ; 
and  on  the  other,  "  the  rich  man's  wealth."  What  con- 
tempt is  expressed  in  putting  the  two  side  by  side  I  It  is 
is  if  the  author  had  said,  Look  on  this  picture  and  on 
this  !  Two  fortresses  1  Yes  I  The  one  is  like  Gibraltar, 
inexpugnable  on  its  rock,  and  the  other  is  like  a  painted 
castle  on  the  stage  ;  flimsy  canvas  that  you  could  put  your 
foot  through,  solid!  cy  by  the  side  of  nothingness.  For 
even  the  poor  appearance  of  solidity  is  an  illusion,  as  our 
text  says  with  bitter  emphasis,  "  a  high  wall  in  his  own 
conceit.'''* 

"The  name  of  the  Lord,"  of  course,  is  the  Biblical 
expression  for  the  whole  character  of  God,  as  He  has 
made  it  known  to  us,  or  in  other  words,  for  God  Himself, 
as  He  has  been  pleased  to  reveal  Himself  to  mankind. 
The  syllables  of  that  name  are  all  the  deeds  by  which  He 
has  taught  us  what  He  is  ;  every  act  of  power,  of  wisdom, 
of  tenderness,  of  grace  that  has  manifested  these  qualities 
and  led  us  to  believe  that  they  are  all  infinite.  In  the 
name,  in  its  narrower  sense,  the  name  of  Jehovah,  there  is 
much  of  "  the  name  "  in  its  wider  sense.  For  that  name 
"Jehovah,"  both  by  its  signification  and  by  the  circum- 
stances under  which  it  was  originally  employed,  tells  us 
a  great  deal  about  God.  It  tells  us,  for  instance,  by  virtue 
of  its  signification,  that  He  is  self-existent,  depending 
upon  no  other  creature.  "  I  AM  THAT  I  Am  !  "  No  other 
being  can  say  that.  All  the  rest  of  us  have  to  say,  "  I  am 
that  which  God  made  me."  Circumstances  and  a  hundred 
other  things  have  made  me  ;  God  finds  the  law  of  His 
being  and  the  fountain  of  His  being  within  Himself. 

"  He  sits  on  no  precarious  throne, 
Nor  borrows  leave  to  be." 

His  name  proclaims  Him  to  be  self-existent,  and  as  self- 
existent,  eternal ;  and  as  eternal,  changeless  ;  and  as  self- 


TWO  PORTHIfSSES.  305 

existent,  eternal,  changeless,  infinite  in  all  the  qualities 
by  which  He  makes  Himself  known.  This  boundless 
Being,  all  full  of  wisdom,  power,  and  tenderness  ;  with 
Whom  we  can  enter  into  relations  of  amity  and  concord, 
surely  He  is  "  a  strong  Tower  into  which  we  may  run  and 
be  safe." 

But  far  beyond  even  the  sweep  of  that  great  name, 
Jehovah,  is  the  knowledge  of  God's  deepest  heart  and 
character  which  we  learn  in  Him  who  said  "I  have 
declared  Thy  name  unto  My  brethren,  and  will  declare 
it."  Christ  in  His  life  and  death,  in  His  meekness, 
sweetness,  gentleness,  calm  wisdom,  infinite  patience, 
attractiveness  ;  yearning  over  sinful  hearts,  weeping  over 
rebels,  in  the  graciousness  of  His  life,  in  the  sacredness 
and  the  power  of  His  Cross,  is  the  Revealer  to  our  hearts 
of  the  heart  of  God.  If  I  may  so  say,  He  has  builded 
"the  strong  tower"  broader,  has  expanded  its  area  and 
widened  its  gate,  and  lifted  its  summit  yet  nearer  the 
heavens,  and  made  the  name  of  God  a  wider  name  and  a 
mightier  name,  and  a  name  of  surer  defence  and  blessing 
than  ever  it  was  before. 

And  so,  dear  brethren,  it  all  comes  to  this,  the  name 
that  is  "the  strong  tower"  is  the  name  "My  Father  I" 
a  Father  of  infinite  tenderness,  and  wisdom,  and  power. 
Oh  !  where  can  the  child  rest  more  quietly  than  on  the 
mother's  breast,  where  can  the  child  be  safer  than  in  the 
circle  of  the  father's  arms  ?  "  The  name  of  the  Lord  is  a 
strong  tower." 

Now  turn  to  the  other  lor  a  moment : — "  The  rich  man's 
wealth  is"  (with  great  emphasis  on  the  next  little  word) 
**  his  strong  city,  and  as  a  high  wall  in  his  own  conceit." 
Of  course  we  have  not  to  deal  here  only  with  wealth  in 
the  shape  of  money,  but  all  external  and  material  goods, 
the  whole  mass  of  the  things  seen  and  temporal  are 
gathered  together  here  in  this  phrase. 


306  TWO  PORTRESSES. 

Men  nse  their  imaginations  in  very  strange  fashion,  and 
make,  or  fancy  they  make,  for  themselves  out  of  the  things 
of  the  present  life  a  defence  and  a  strength.  Like  some 
poor  lunatic,  out  upon  a  moor,  that  fancies  himself  ensconced 
in  a  castle  ;  like  some  barbarous  tribes  behind  their 
stockades  or  crowding  at  the  back  of  a  little  turf  wall,  or 
in  some  old  tumble-down  fort  that  the  first  shot  will  bring 
rattling  about  their  ears,  fancying  themselves  perfectly 
fiecure  and  defended, — so  do  men  deal  with  these  outward 
things  that  are  given  them  for  another  purpose  altogether : 
they  make  of  them  defences  and  fortresses. 

It  is  difficult  for  a  man  to  have  them  and  not  to  trust 
them.  So  Jesus  said  to  His  disciples  once : — "  How 
hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the  Kingdom  ; 
and  when  they  were  astonished  at  His  words.  He  repeated 
them  with  the  significant  variation,  **  How  hard  is  it  for 
them  that  trust  in  riches  to  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of 
God."  So  He  would  teach  that  the  misuse  and  not  the 
possession  of  wealth  is  the  barrier,  but  so,  too,  He  would 
warn  us  that,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  the  possession  of  them 
in  more  than  a  very  modest  measure,  tempts  a  man  into 
confidence  in  them. 

The  illusion  is  one  that  besets  ns  all.  We  are  all 
tempted  to  make  a  defence  of  the  things  that  we  can  see 
and  handle.  Is  it  not  strange,  and  is  it  not  sad,  that  most 
of  us  just  turn  the  truth  round  about  and  suppose  that 
the  real  defence  is  the  imaginary,  and  that  the  imaginary 
one  is  the  real  ?  How  many  men  are  there  in  this  chapel, 
that,  if  they  spoke  out  their  deepest  convictions  would 
say : — "  Oh  yes  I  the  promises  Oi.  God  are  all  very  well, 
but  I  would  rather  have  the  cash  down.  I  suppose  that  I 
may  trust  that  He  will  provide  bread  and  water,  and  all 
the  things  that  I  need,  but  I  would  rather  have  a  good 
solid  balance  at  the  banker's."  How  many  of  you  would 
rather  honestly,  and  at  the  bottom  of  your  hearts,  liaT* 


TWO    PORTRESSES.  307 

that  than  God's  word  for  your  defence  ?  How  many  of  yon 
think  that  to  trust  in  a  living  God  is  but  grasping  at  a  very 
airy  and  unsubstantial  kind  of  support ;  and  that  the  real  solid 
defence  is  the  defence  made  of  the  things  that  you  can  see  ? 

My  brother  1  it  is  exactly  the  opposite  way.  Turn  it 
clean  round,  and  you  get  the  truth.  The  unsubstantial 
shadows  are  the  material  things  that  you  can  see  and 
handle  ;  illusory  as  a  dream,  and  as  little  able  to  ward  off 
the  blows  of  fate  as  a  soap  bubble.  The  Real  is  the 
Unseen  beyond,  "  the  things  that  are,^''  and  He  who 
alone  really  is,  and  in  His  boundless  and  absolute  Being 
is  our  only  defence. 

In  one  aspect  or  another,  that  false  imagination  with 
which  my  last  text  deals  is  the  besetting  sin  of  Manchester. 
Not  the  rich  man  only,  but  the  poor  man  just  as  much,  is 
in  danger  of  it.  The  poor  man  who  thinks  that  every- 
thing would  be  right  if  only  he  were  rich,  and  the  rich 
man  who  thinks  that  everything  is  right  because  he  is 
rich, — are  exactly  the  same  man.  The  circumstances 
differ,  but  the  one  man  is  but  the  other  turned  inside  out. 
And  all  round  about  us  we  see  the  fierce  fight  to  get  more 
and  more  of  these  things,  the  tight  grip  of  them  when  we 
have  got  them,  the  over-estimate  of  the  value  of  them,  the 
contempt  for  the  people  that  have  less  of  them  than  our- 
selves. Our  aristocracy  is  an  aristocracy  of  wealth ;  in 
some  respects,  one  by  no  means  to  be  despised,  because 
there  often  go  a  great  many  good  qualities  to  the  making 
and  the  stewardship  of  wealth  ;  but  still  it  is  an  evil  that 
men  should  be  so  largely  estimated  by  their  money  as  they 
are  here.  It  is  not  a  sound  state  of  opinion  which  has 
made,  "  what  is  he  worth  ?  "  mean  "  how  much  of  it  has 
he  ?  *'  We  are  taught  here  to  look  upon  the  prizes  of  life 
as  being  mainly  wealth.  To  win  that  is  "  success " — 
"  prosperity  " — and  it  is  very  hard  for  us  all  not  to  be  in- 
fluenced by  the  prevailing  tone. 

x2 


308  TWO    FORTRBSS»S. 

I  would  urge  yon,  yonng  men,  especially  to  lay  this  to 
heart — that  of  all  delusions  that  can  beset  yon  in  yonr 
course,  none  will  work  more  disastrously  than  the  notion 
that  the  summum  bonuTn,  the  shield  and  stay  of  a  man, 
is  the  abundance  of  the  things  that  he  possesses.  I  fancy 
I  see  more  listless,  discontented,  unhappy  faces  looking 
out  of  carriages  than  I  see  upon  the  pavement.  And  I 
am  sure  of  this,  at  any  rate,  that  all  which  is  noble  and 
Bweet  and  good  in  life  can  be  wrought  out  and  possessed, 
upon  as  much  bread  and  water  as  will  keep  body  and  soul 
together,  and  as  much  furniture  as  will  enable  a  man  to 
sit  at  his  meal  and  lie  down  at  night.  And  as  for  the  rest, 
it  has  many  advantages  and  blessings,  but  oh  I  it  is  all 
illusory  as  a  defence  against  the  evils  that  will  come, 
sooner  or  later,  to  every  life. 

II. — Consider  next  how  to  get  into  the  true  refuge. 

"  The  righteous  runneth  into  it  and  is  safe,"  says  my 
text.  You  may  get  into  the  illusory  one  very  easily 
Imagination  will  take  you  there.  There  is  no  difficulty 
at  all  about  that.  And  yet  the  way  by  which  a  man 
makes  this  world  his  defence  may  teach  you  a  lesson  as  to 
how  you  can  make  God  your  defence.  How  does  a  man 
make  this  world  his  defence  ?  By  trusting  to  it.  He 
that  says  to  the  fine  gold,  "  Thou  art  my  confidence,"  has 
made  it  his  fortress — and  that  is  how  you  will  make  God 
your  fortress — by  trusting  to  Him.  The  very  same  emotion, 
the  very  same  act  of  mind,  heart,  and  will,  may  be  turned 
either  upwards  or  downwards,  as  you  can  turn  the  beam 
from  a  lantern  which  way  you  please.  Direct  it  earth- 
wards, and  you  "  trust  in  the  uncertainty  of  riches." 
Flash  it  heavenwards,  and  you  "  trust  in  the  living  God." 

And  that  same  lesson  is  taught  by  the  words  of  our  text : 
"  The  righteous  runneth  into  it."  I  do  not  dwell  upon 
that  word  "  righteous."  That  is  the  Old  Testament  point 
of  Tiew,  which  could  not  conceive  it  possible  that  any 


TWO    FORTRESSES.  309 

man  could  have  deep  and  close  communion  with  God,  ex- 
cept on  condition  of  a  pure  character.  I  will  not  speak  of 
that  at  present,  but  point  to  the  picturesque  metaphor, 
which  will  tell  us  a  great  deal  more  about  what  faith  is 
than  many  a  philosophical  dissertation.  Many  a  man  who 
would  be  perplexed  by  a  theologian's  talk  will  understand 
this :  ■•  The  righteous  runneth  into  the  name  of  the  Lord." 

The  metaphor  brings  out  the  idea  of  eager  harte  in  be- 
taking oneself  to  the  shelter,  as  when  an  invading  army 
comes  into  a  country,  and  the  unarmed  peasants  take  their 
portable  belongings  and  their  cattle,  and  catch  up  their 
children  in  their  arms,  and  set  their  wives  upon  their 
mules,  and  make  all  haste  to  some  fortified  place  ;  or  as 
when  the  manslayer  in  Israel  fled  to  the  city  of  refuge,  or  as 
when  Lot  hurried  for  his  life  out  of  Sodom.  There  would  be 
no  dawdling  then  :  but  wiih  every  muscle  strained,  men 
would  run  into  the  stronghold,  counting  every  minute  a 
year  till  they  were  inside  its  walls,  and  heard  the  heavy 
door  close  between  them  and  the  pursuer.  No  matter  how 
rough  the  road,  or  how  over-powering  the  heat.  No  time 
to  stop  to  gather  flowers,  or  even  diamonds  on  the  road^ 
when  a  moment's  delay  might  mean  the  enemy's  sword  in 
your  heart ! 

Now  that  metaphor  is  frequently  used  to  express  the  re- 
solved and  swift  act  by  which,  recognising  in  Jesus  Christ, 
who  declares  the  name  of  the  Lord,  our  hiding-place,  we 
shelter  ourselves  in  Him,  and  rest  secure.  One  of  the 
picturesque  words  by  which  the  Old  Testament  expresses 
"trust"  means  literally  "to  flee  to  a  refuge."  The  Old 
Testament  trust  is  the  New  Testament  faith,  even  as  the 
Old  Testament  "  Name  of  the  Lord  "  answers  to  the  New 
Testament  "  Name  of  Jestis^  And  so  we  run  into  this 
sure  hiding-place  and  stroii-r  fortress  of  the  name  of  the 
Lord,  when  we  betake  ourselves  to  Jesus  and  put  our  trust 
in  Him  as  our  defence. 


310  TWO  PORTRESSES. 

Such  a  faith — the  trust  of  mind,  heart,  and  will— -laying 
hold  of  the  name  of  the  Lord,  makes  us  "  righteous,"  and 
so  capable  of  "  dwelling  with  the  devouring  fire  "  of  God*s 
perfect  purity.  The  Old  Testament  point  of  view  was 
righteousness,  in  order  to  abiding  in  God.  The  New 
Testament  begins,  as  it  were,  at  an  earlier  stage  in  the  re- 
ligious life,  and  tells  us  how  to  get  the  righteousness,  without 
which,  it  holds  as  strongly  as.  the  Old  Testament,  no  man 
Bhall  see  the  Lord.  It  shows  us  that  our  faith,  by  which 
we  run  into  that  fortress,  fits  us  to  enter  the  fortress, 
because  it  makes  us  partakers  of  Christ's  purity. 

So  my  earnest  question  to  you  all  is — Have  you  "  fled 
for  refuge  to  lay  hold  "  on  that  Saviour  in  whom  God  has 
set  His  name  ?  Like  Lot  out  of  Sodom,  like  the  manslayer 
to  the  city  of  refuge,  like  the  un warlike  peasants  to  the 
baron's  tower,  before  the  border  thieves,  have  you  gone 
thither  for  shelter  from  all  the  sorrows  and  guilt  and 
dangers  that  are  marching  terrible  against  you  ?  Can  you 
take  up  as  yours  the  old  grand  words  of  exuberant  trust  in 
which  the  Psalmist  heaps  together  the  names  of  the  Lord 
as  if  walking  about  the  city  of  his  defence,  and  telling  the 
towers  thereof  ?  "  The  Lord  is  my  rock,  and  my  fortress, 
and  my  deliverer  ;  my  God,  my  strength,  in  whom  I  will 
trust ;  my  buckler,  and  the  horn  of  my  salvation,  and  my 
high  tower."  If  you  have,  then  "  because  you  have  made 
the  Lord  your  refuge,  there  shall  no  evil  befall  you. " 

III. — So  we  have,  lastly,  what  comes  of  sheltering  in 
these  two  refuges. 

As  to  the  former  of  them,  I  said  at  the  beginning  of 
these  remarks  that  the  words  "  is  safe  "  were  more  accur- 
ately as  well  as  picturesquely  rendered  by  is  "  set  aloft." 
They  remind  us  of  the  psalm  which  has  many  points  of 
resemblance  with  this  text,  and  which  gives  the  very  same 
thought  when  it  says  "  I  will  set  him  on  high,  because  he 
hath  known  My  name."    The  fugitive  is  taken  within  the 


•TWO  FORTRESSES.  311 

safe  walls  of  the  strong  tower,  and  is  set  up  high  on  the 
battlements,  looking  down  upon  the  baffled  pursuers,  and 
far  beyond  the  reach  of  their  arrows.  To  stand  upon  that 
tower  lifts  a  man  above  the  region  where  temptations  fly, 
above  the  region  where  sorrow  strikes,  lifts  him  above  sin 
and  guilt  and  condemnation,  and  fear,  and  calumny,  and 
slander  and  sickness,  and  separation,  and  loneliness,  and 
death  ;  "  and  all  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to." 

Or,  as  one  of  the  old  Puritan  commentators  has  it : — 
"  The  tower  is  so  deep  that  no  pioneer  can  undermine  it, 
so  thick  that  no  cannon  can  breach  it,  so  high  that  no 
ladder  can  scale  it."  "  The  righteous  runneth  into  it,"  and 
is  perched  up  there ;  and  can  look  down  like  Lear  from 
his  cliff,  and  all  the  troubles  that  afflict  the  lower  levels 
shall  "  show  scarce  so  gross  as  beetles  "  from  the  height 
where  he  stands,  safe  and  high,  hidden  in  the  Name  of 
the  Lord. 

I  say  little  about  the  other  side.  Brethren,  the 
world  in  any  of  its  forms,  the  good  things  of  this  life 
in  any  shape,  whether  that  of  money  or  any  other,  can 
do  a  great  deal  for  us.  They  can  keep  a  great  many  in- 
conveniences from  us,  they  can  keep  a  great  many  cares 
and  pains  and  sorrows  from  us.  I  was  going  to  say,  to 
carry  out  the  metaphor,  they  can  keep  the  rifle  bullets 
from  us.  But,  ah  !  when  the  big  siege  guns  get  into 
position  and  begin  to  play  ;  when  the  great  trials  that 
every  life  must  have,  sooner  or  later,  come  to  open  fire  at 
ns,  then  the  defence  that  auythini?  in  this  outer  world  can 
give  comes  rattling  auuuo  our  ears  very  quickly.  It 
is  like  the  pasteboard  helmet  which  looked  as  good  as 
if  it  had  been  steel,  and  did  admirably  as  long  as  no  sword 
struck  it. 

There  is  only  one  thing  that  will  keep  us  peaceful  and 
unharmed,  and  that  is  to  trust  our  poor  shelterless  lives 
and  sinful  souls  to  the  Saviour  who  has  died  for  ub.     In 


312  TWO   PORTRESSES. 

Him  we  find  the  hiding-place  in  which  seenre,  as  beneath 
the  shadow  of  a  great  rock,  dreaded  evils  will  pass  us  by, 
as  impotent  to  hurt  as  savages  before  a  castle  fortified  by 
modern  skill.  All  the  bitterness  of  outward  calamities 
will  be  taken  from  them  before  they  reach  us.  Their 
arrows  will  still  wound,  but  He  will  have  wiped  the 
poison  off  before  He  lets  them  be  shot  at  us.  The  force 
of  temptation  will  be  weakened,  for  if  we  live  near  Him 
we  shall  have  other  tastes  and  desires.  The  bony  fingers 
of  the  skeleton  death,  that  drags  men  from  all  other 
homes,  will  not  dislodge  us  from  our  fortress-dw^elling. 
Hid  in  Him  we  shall  neither  fear  going  down  to  the 
grave,  nor  coming  up  from  it,  nor  judgment,  nor  eternity. 
Then,  I  beseech  you,  make  no  delay.  Escape,  flee  for  your 
life.  A  growing  host  of  evil  marches  swift  against  yon. 
Take  Christ  for  your  defence  and  cry  to  Him, 


*•  Lo  !  from  sin  and  griex  and  sham*, 
Hide  n.e,  Jesiis,  in  'i  liy  nama." 


A  LIVING  SACRIFICE. 


SERMON  xxnr. 


A    LIVING   SACRIFIOa 

**  I  tiiiieh  JOB,  therefore,  brethren,  by  the  meroie«  of  God,  that  j*  prtMat  you 

bodlea  •  liring  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  Qod,  which  la  yoar  reaaonaUa  mitIm." 
Romaaa  zil.  1. 


This  verse  makes  a  transition  from  the  first  to  the 
second  half  of  this  letter.  All  before  it  is  what  we  call 
doctrinal,  the  most  of  what  comes  after  it  is  practical. 
And  the  "  therefore "  of  my  text  carries  us  back,  not 
merely  to  the  words  immediately  preceding,  but  to  the 
whole  presentation  of  the  Christian  scheme  of  salvation 
from  the  beginning  of  the  Epistle  up  to  the  present  point. 
That  is  to  say,  in  PauFs  notion,  all  the  practical  is  to  be 
built  upon  all  the  doctrinal.  There  are  many  men  that 
say  :  "  Give  us  the  morality  of  the  New  Testament ;  never 
mind  about  the  theology."  But  you  cannot  get  the 
morality  without  the  theology,  unless  you  like  to  have 
rootless  flowers  and  lamps  without  oil.  If  you  want  men 
to  live  as  Paul  enjoins,  you  will  have  to  get  them  to  yield 
to  the  mercies  of  God,  which  Paul  pleads  as  the  motive 
for  all  holy  life. 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  a  great  many  good  people,  and 


316  4  LIVING  8ACRIPI0B. 

some  professed  theologians  and  Christian  ministers  forget 
that  the  end  of  doctrine  is  life,  and  that  the  meaning  of 
all  that  we  are  taught  about  God  is  conduct  and  character, 
and  that  therefore  the  most  orthodox  orthodoxy,  divorced 
from  practice,  is  like  the  dried  flowers  which  botanists  put 
between  sheets  of  blotting-paper,  with  no  perfume  nor 
colour,  nor  growth  nor  life  in  them — the  skeletons  of  dead 
beauty. 

Let  ns,  then,  always  remember  this  little  word  "there- 
fore "  that  binds  together  indissolubly  the  two  halves  of 
Christian  teaching — the  setting  forth  of  Christian  truth, 
and  the  earnest  exhortation — built  upon  that  truth — to  all 
manner  of  Christian  duty. 

These  words  of  my  text  are  not  only  the  flower  and  the 
outcome  of  all  that  has  gone  before,  but  they  are  likewise 
the  basis  of  all  that  follows.  The  whole  of  the  detailed 
exhortations  which  fill  up  the  rest  of  the  Epistle  lie,  as 
the  folded  leaves  in  the  spring  time  in  the  sheath-like 
bud,  here  in  this  exhortation.  The  two  precepts  of  this 
verse,  and  of  the  one  that  follows  it,  give  us,  in  the  most 
general  terms,  the  highest  notion  of  Christian  morality 
and  duty.  Sacrifice  and  transformation,  these  two,  if  yon 
will  analyse  and  expand  them,  you  will  find  to  lead  up  to 
all  manner  of  nobilities  and  heroisms  and  holinesses,  of 
life  and  conduct. 

I. — So  then,  we  have  here,  I  think,  in  onr  text  a  very 
remarkable  way  of  putting  what  I  may  call  the  sum  of 
Christian  service. 

"  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that 
ye  present  your  bodies" — "present,"  of  course,  being  the 
sacrificial  word  for  bringing  the  ofi'ering — "a  living  sacri- 
fice "  ;  not  dragged  dead  to  the  altar,  but  living  when 
brought  there ;  and  living  because  brought  there  ;  "  holy  '* 
with  a  true  consecration  because  it  is  a  sacrifice,  and, 
wonderful  to    think,   "acceptable   unto  €k)d,  which    ii 


A  LIVING  SACRIFICE.  317 

onr  reasonable  service."  Now  the  main  leading  idea 
there  is,  as  I  said,  the  gathering  together  of  all 
Christian  duty  into  the  one  mighty  word  "sacrifice." 
And  what  does  that  mean  ?  It  means,  no  mere  fine  meta- 
phor, but  a  thought  that  has  a  very  wide  sweep,  and  a  very 
tight  application  to  our  daily  lives. 

Sacrifice,  to  begin  with,  means  giving  up  everything  to 
God.  And  how  do  I  give  up  to  God  ?  When  in  heart  and 
will,  and  thought,  I  am  conscious  of  His  presence,  and  do 
all  the  actions  of  the  inner  man  in  depeudeiice  on  and  in 
obedience  to  Him.  That  is  the  true  sacrifice,  when  I 
think  as  in  His  sight,  and  will,  and  love,  and  act  as  in 
obedience  to  Him. 

And  this  sacrifice,  which  consists  in  the  reference  of 
the  whole  of  my  being  and  actions  to  God,  will,  as  it  were, 
becoming  visible  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  body  which  is  the 
manifestation  of  the  inner  man.  That  word  is  not  to  be 
passed  over  as  if  it  were  only  a  synonym  for  "  yourselves." 
My  text  speaks  about  what  is  to  be  done  with  the  body  ; 
the  next  verse  speaks  about  what  is  to  be  done  with  the 
mind. 

"  Present  your  bodies  living  sacrifices."  We  are  to  look 
upon  our  corporeal  frame  with  reverence  as  the  gift  of 
God.  We  are  to  look  upon  it  and  to  use  it  as  a  wonderful 
instrument,  and  to  keep  it  well  in  hand  as  a  possible 
enemy  and  antagonist.  The  body  is  the  organ  of  all  our 
activity,  that  by  which  we  come  into  communication  with 
the  outer  world  ;  and  we  render  it  up  as  a  living  sacrifice 
to  God  when  in  all  common  actions  we  have  a  supreme 
and  distinct  reference  to  His  will,  and  do,  or  refuse  to  do, 
because  of  the  fear  and  for  the  sake  of  the  Lord.  As  one 
of  the  Greek  commentators  has  it  upon  this  verse  : — "  Let 
the  eye  look  upon  nothing  evil,  and  it  becomes  a  sacrifice  ; 
let  the  tongue  say  nothing  foul,  and  it  becomes  an  oflering ; 
let  the  hand  do  nothing  unlawful,  and  it  becomes  a  holo- 


81S  A  LIVmO  SAORIFIOB. 

canst.**  The  body  has  wants  and  appetites — food,  drink, 
clothing,  shelter,  rest,  recreation ;  you  have  to  see  to  it 
that  these  are  supplied  with  a  distinct  reference  to,  and 
remembrance  of,  Him,  the  Creator  and  Saviour  of  the 
body,  and  so  made  acts  of  religious  worship. 

The  excess  which  dulls  the  spirit  and  makes  it  all  unapt 
to  serve  Him,  and  to  walk  in  the  lofty  regions  of  truth, 
and  to  cultivate  the  habit  of  meditation  ;  the  absorbing 
care  about  outward  things  which  checks  all  the  nobility 
of  a  man's  life  ;  the  mere  selfish  indulgence  and  enjoy- 
ment in  them  which  brings  men  below  the  level  of  the 
beasts  that  perish,  these  are  the  grosser  forms  in  which 
the  body  comes  in  the  way  of  the  soul,  and  the  regulation 
and  suppression  of  these  are  the  elementary  and  simplest 
parts  of  the  offering  of  our  bodies  as  living  sacrifices. 
We  should  neither  care  so  much  as  some  of  you  men  do  for 
what  you  eat  and  drink,  nor  so  much  as  some  of  you  women 
do  for  the  wherewithal  you  shall  be  clothed  ;  but  consult 
for  these  needs  and  satisfy  them  as  in  the  sight  of  God, 
and  so  realise  that  high  and  difficult  attainment  of  Christian 
godliness,  to  "  eat  our  meat  with  thankfulness  and  with 
singleness  of  heart,  praising  God." 

It  is  not  fitting  in  this  place  (though  I  would  fain  do  it 
for  some  reasons),  to  dwell  on  some  of  the  grosser  forma 
in  which  this  great  exhortation  is  neglected,  especially  by 
some  of  you  younger  men.  Let  me  but  hint  at  what  I 
cannot  do  more  than  hint  here.  Remember,  my  young 
brother,  "  He  that  soweth  to  the  flesh  shall " — as  sure  as 
one  and  one  make  two  :  he  shall — "  of  the  flesh  reap  cor- 
ruption." Remember  your  body  is  the  temple  of  a  spirit 
which  may  be  the  temple  of  a  living  God,  and  "  live 
soberly  "  in  this  present  world  of  evil. 

There  is  no  need  in  this  generation  to  preach  against 
asceticism.  We  are  too  good  Protestants,  that  is  to  say, 
many  of  lui  are  too  fond  of  onr  own  self-indulgence  to  fall 


A  LIVING  SACRIFICE.  319 

Into  any  danger  of  fasting  and  hair-shirts.  All  that  kind 
of  life  was  an  extreme,  unquestionably  ;  and  the  kind  of 
life  that  a  great  many  of  you  professing  Christians  live  is 
an  extreme  the  other  way,  just  as  unquestionably.  And 
looking  at  the  two,  the  man  that  mortified  his  body  in 
the  monk's  cell,  and  the  "  liberal-minded "  professing 
Christian  that  never  thinks  of  curbing  his  animal  gratifica- 
tions, or  of  eating  and  drinking  as  in  the  fear  of  God, 
I  for  my  part  would  rather,  of  the  two,  be  the  monk. 
I  am  quite  sure  that  there  never  was  a  generation 
that  wanted  this  exhortation  more  than  this  generation 
does,  when  all  round  about  us  we  see  senseless  luxury, 
the  making  provision  for  the  flesh  to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof 
in  all  classes  of  life,  when  "  plain  and  high  thinking  "  are 
no  more  ;  when  you  cannot  look  at  the  hoardings  on  the 
walls  without  having  jour  eyes  offended  and  your  decency 
insulted ;  when  poetry,  painting  and  sculj^ture,  and  the 
stage,  and  the  newspapers,  seem  all  to  vie  one  with  another 
to  feed  the  flesh,  and  to  proclaim  a  crnsade  against  the 
subjugation  of  the  body  for  the  sake  of  the  spirit ;  and 
when  young  men  and  old  men,  young  women  and  old 
women,  professing  Christians  and  non-Christians,  are  alike 
in  danger  of  being  tainted  by  the  leprosy.  My  brother, 
I  bring  you  the  old  message.  Better  John  the  Baptist's 
garment  of  camel's  hair  and  his  meat — locusts  and  wild 
honey,  if,  like  John  the  Baptist,  I  shall  see  the  heavens 
opened,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  descending  on  the  Son  of 
Man,  than  this  full-fed  sensualism  which  is  the  curse  and 
the  crime  of  this  generation.  "  I  beseech  you,  brethren, 
that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice." 

Now  a  word  or  two  about  other  matters  connected  with 
this  first  thought  as  to  the  sum  of  Christian  service.  Here 
we  get  this  truth  that  such  offering  makes  a  man  live 
more  nobly  and  more  truly  than  anything  else. 

"  A  living  sacrifice."     Of  course  that  refers  to  the  con- 


320  A  LIVING  SACRIFICE. 

trast  between  the  death  of  the  sacrifice,  in  Jndaism  and 
Heathenism,  and  the  life  of  the  man  in  the  Christian 
sacrifice.  But  it  carries  with  it  this  lesson,  too,  that,  not 
mutilation  but  consecration  is  the  true  sacrifice  ;  that  we 
are  not  calkJ  upon  to  crush  our  desires,  tastes,  appetites, 
or  to  refrain  from  actions,  but  that  they  are  to  be  con- 
trolled and  done  in  obedience  to  God. 

Now  and  then  it  may  be  necessary,  it  very  often  is 
necessary,  that  a  man  should  offer  his  body  a  living  sacri- 
fice in  the  sense  of  giving  up,  and  altogether  crucifying 
and  contradicting  some  natural  taste  and  desire.  As 
Christ  tells  us,  circumstances  may  come  in  which  it  is  the 
plain  dictate  of  Christian  duty  to  put  your  hand  down 
there  on  the  block  and  take  an  axe  in  the  other  and  chop 
it  off.  It  is  the  best  thing  you  can  do  ;  better  for  you  to 
go  maimed  into  life  than  with  all  your  limbs  into  hell. 
But  that  is  second-best ;  and  if  the  man  had  always  con- 
secrated his  faculty  to  God,  he  would  never  have  had 
need  to  cut  it  off.  To  harness  and  tame  it,  to  yoke  it  to 
the  cart,  and  make  it  work,  not  to  shoot  the  wild  beast,  is 
the  right  thing  to  do. 

Thus  to  consecrate  oneself  is  the  way  to  secure  a  higher 
and  a  nobler  life  than  ever  before.  Just  as  when  you  take 
a  flower  out  of  the  woods  and  put  it  into  a  greenhouse, 
and  cultivate,  and  keep  it  back,  and  nip  off  some  of  its 
flower  buds,  and  guide  its  growth,  you  will  get  a  broader 
leaf  and  a  finer  flower  than  when  it  was  wild,  so  the 
disciplined,  restrained,  consecrated  man  is  the  man  whose 
life  is  the  richest,  fullest,  largest,  the  gladsomest,  the 
noblest  in  every  way.  If  yon  want  to  go  all  to  rack  and 
ruin  live  according  to  your  own  fancy  and  taste.  If  you 
want  to  be  strong  and  grow  stronger  and  more  and  more 
blessed,  put  the  brake  on  and  keep  a  tight  hand  upon 
yourself,  and  offer,  your  whole  being  upon  His  altar. 

Then,  again,  this  sacrifice  is  "  your  reasonable  service." 


A   LIVING  SAORIFIGB.  32] 

Apparently  "  reasonable  "  here  is  not  opposed  to  "  un- 
reasonable '* ;  Paul  would  not  have  called  the  Jewish 
sacrifices  unreasonable,  nor  did  it  lie  in  his  way  here  to 
assert  that  the  Christian  sacrifice  was  in  accordance  with 
reason — however  true  that  may  be.  But  the  antithesis  is 
with  the  material  sacrifices  consisting  of  the  "flesh  of 
bulls"  and  "blood  of  goats,"  and  the  Revised  Version 
gives  the  true  meaning  in  its  marginal  rendering  "spirit- 
ual." It  is  a  service  or  worship  rendered  by  the  inner 
man,  transacted  by  the  mind  or  reason,  and  thus,  as  indicat- 
ing the  part  of  our  nature  which  performs  it,  is  reasonable. 
For  though  the  body  be  the  sacrifice,  presenting  the  body 
as  sacrifice  is  the  work  of  the  mind  and  will,  and  while 
the  offering  is  a  corporeal,  bringing  the  offering  is  a  spirit- 
ual service. 

Now  there  is  no  need  to  exaggerate  in  depreciation  of 
outward  forms  of  oral  worship.  But  still  we  have  all 
need  to  be  reminded  that  devout  daily  living  is  true  wor- 
ship. All  Christians  are  priests,  and  all  their  lives  should 
be  worship.  Where  the  common  food  is  eaten  with 
thankfulness  and  in  the  consciousness  of  His  presence,  it 
is  holy  as  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  same  authority  that 
said  of  the  one  "  This  do  in  remembrance  of  Me,"  said  by 
His  Apostle  of  the  other  "  Whether  ye  eat  or  drink,  do  all 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  Lahorare  est  orare — to 
work  is  to  pray,  if  the  work  be  done  from  a  right  motive. 
The  bells  that  jingle  on  the  horses  in  the  waggoner's  team 
may  bear  the  same  inscription  as  blazed  on  the  High 
Priest's  mitre,  "  Holiness  to  the  Lord,"  and  the  shop-girl 
behind  the  counter  may  be  as  truly  offering  sacrifice  to 
God  as  the  priest  by  the  altar.  The  mere  formal  worship 
is  abomination  without  this.  "  When  ye  make  many  pray- 
ers, I  will  not  hear  you  ;  your  hands  are  full  of  blood." 
**  Do  you  think  that  you  are  going  to  lift  them  to  My 
Throne  with  acceptance  ?  "  Is  there  not  every  bit  as  much 

T 


322  A   LIVING  SACRIFICH. 

enperstitioTis  dependence  on  forms  and  places  of  external 
worship  amongst  us  nineteenth-century  Nonconformists 
as  ever  there  was  at  any  time  in  the  world's  history  ? 
There  are  people  in  this  chapel  this  morning  that  think 
they  have  done  a  meritorious  thing  in  coming  here  to  thif 
service,  and  whose  only  notion  of  worship  is  a  wear^ 
sitting  in  this  place  for  an  hour  and  a  half.  Do  you  think 
that  is  of  any  use  ?  Your  prayers  will  never  go  above  that 
roof,  and  no  blessings  will  ever  come  down  through  it  to 
you,  unless  the  worship  of  the  Word  be  purified  and 
proved  by  the  worship  of  the  Life.  The  sacrifice  of  praise 
is  right,  "  but  to  do  good  and  to  communicate  forget  not, 
for  with  such  sacrifices  God  is  well  pleased." 

II. — We  have  not  only  the  sum  of  Christian  service,  but 
we  have  likewise  the  great  motive  of  Christian  service. 
"  I  beseech  you,  therefore,  by  the  mercies  of  God." 
In  the  Apostle's  mind  this  is  no  vague  expression  for  the 
whole  of  the  diffused  blessings  with  which  God  floods  the 
world,  but  he  means  thereby  the  definite  specific  thing, 
the  great  scheme  of  mercy  set  forth  in  the  previous  chap- 
ters ;  that  is  to  say,  His  great  work  of  saving  the  world 
through  Jesus  Christ.  That  is,  "  the  mercies  "  to  which 
he  makes  his  appeal.  The  diffused  and  wide-shining 
mercies,  which  stream  from  the  Father's  heart,  are  all,  as 
it  were,  focussed  as  through  a  burning-glass  into  one  strong 
beam,  which  can  kindle  the  greenest  wood  and  melt  the 
thick-ribbed  ice. 

Only  on  the  footing  of  that  sacrifice  can  we  offer  ours. 
He  has  offered  the  one  sacrifice,  of  which  His  death  is  the 
essential  part,  in  order  that  we  may  offer  the  sacrifice  of 
which  our  life  is  the  essential  part.  He  has  offered  the 
dying  sacrifice  which  is  propitiation,  in  order  that,  on  the 
footing  of  that,  we  may  offer  the  sacrifice  of  thankful 
consecration,  the  Eucharistic  sacrifice  of  grateful  surren- 
der of  ouPMlves  to  Him. 


A  LIVING  8AORIFI0H.  828 

The  mercies  of  God,  in  Jesns  Christ,  are  not  only  the 
ground  npon  which  we  can  ofler  our  sacrifice,  but  they 
are  the  only  motive  power  that  will  be  strong  enouirh  to 
lead  to  this  consecration  of  ourselves  to  Him.  The  fierce 
wants  of  the  bodily  life,  the  passions,  and  appetites  and 
lusts  that  rage  and  rule  in  men  will  be  subdued  by  nothing 
short  of  the  mighty  motive  drawn  from  the  great  love  of 
God  revealed  in  the  dying  love  of  Jesus.  There  is  one 
magnet  strong  enough  to  draw  reluctant  hearts  and 
reluctant  limbs,  and  that  is  Jesus  lifted  up  on  the  Cross. 
There  is  one  fire  powerful  enough  to  bum  the  bonds  of 
flesh  and  sense  which  hold  men,  and  that  is  the  fire  which 
Jesus  longed  to  kindle  on  earth.  Other  restraints  from 
propriety,  prudence,  or  even  principle  will  reach  their 
breaking  point  at  a  much  lower  strain  than  the  silken 
bonds  in  which  Christ's  love  leads  the  lion  and  the  bear 
of  our  passions  and  appetites.  They  are  useful  and  help- 
ful in  their  places — but  '*  Gospel  temperance,"  a  self-control 
based  on  Christian  motives,  is  the  really  reliable  break- 
water against  storms  and  passion  and  self-indulgence. 
You  may  try  to  coerce  the  corporeal  nature  by  other  bonds, 
they  will  be  like  the  fetters  upon  the  madman  in  the 
tombs.  When  the  paroxysms  come  he  will  rend  them 
asunder  as  Samson  did  the  withes.  Oh,  if  you  want  to  tame 
the  animal  that  is  in  you,  and  lead  it  in  gentle  following 
and  docile  obedience,  here  is  the  one  motive  that  will  do 
it— the  mercy  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  That  is 
one  great  and  blessed  peculiarity  of  Christian  morals,  that 
Christ  is  at  once  our  pattern  and  our  power  to  copy,  and 
our  motive.  He  is,  to  those  who  love  Him,  both  example 
and  stimulus.  Let  us  then  seek  for  power  to  yield  our- 
selves body  and  spirit  to  God,  in  the  habitual  contempla- 
tion of  that  great  gift  which  alone  will  conquei-  seJf,  and 
make  all  surrender  and  all  self -crucifixion  blessed  and 
delightsome. 

TS 


324  A  LIVIKG  SACRIFIOB. 

III. — One  other  thing  here  I  must  jnst  touch  for  a  moment, 
that  is  the  gentle  enforcement  of  this  great  motive  for 
Christian  service,  "  I  beseech  you  !  "  Law  commands,  the 
Gosi)el  entreats  !  Paul's  beseeching  is  only  a  less  tender 
echo  of  the  Master's  entreaty.  His  word  to  His  servants 
is  never  "  Go,"  but  it  is  either  "  Come,"  or  "  Who  will  go  ?'* 
Thus  the  harsh  imperative  of  law  is  softened  down  by 
His  lips.  Instead  of  '*  Thou  shalt,"  His  most  stringent 
word  is  J  "  If  ye  love  Me,  keep  My  commandments." 
Instead  of  a  harsh  injunction,  duty  becomes  the  wish  of  a 
Friend,  which  wish  is  a  delight  to  do.  "  His  yoke  is  easy," 
not  because  His  precepts  let  dowm  the  ideal  of  morality, 
but  because  the  motive  is  love,  and  the  manner  of  com- 
mand gentle  and  beseeching.  Hence  its  power  ;  for  hearts, 
like  flowers,  which  could  not  be  burst  open  by  the  crow- 
bar of  law,  may  be  wooed  open  by  the  sunshine  of  love. 

It  is  a  solemn  task  laid  upon  us  preachers  to  try  to 
soften  our  voices  that  they  may  not  all  unworthily  repre- 
sent the  gentleness  of  Christ,  and  as  God's  ambassadors, 
beseech  men  to  be  reconciled  to  God.  Through  even  our 
lips,  dear  friends.  He  "  prays  you  with  much  entreaty  to 
receive  the  gift "  of  Himself,  and  to  render  back  that  gift 
which  it  will  gladden  you  to  give,  and — wonderful  conde- 
scension— will  delight  Him  to  receive — the  gift  of  your- 
selves. Oh,  let  that  pitying,  patient  gentle  love  of  the 
Saviour  draw  you  to  Him  in  contrite  faith,  and  love,  and 
service.  He  invites.  He  prays  you  to  let  II is  gracious 
power  enter  your  heart.  From  His  Cross  He  called  to 
you  and  to  all  the  world,  "  Come  unto  Me  and  I  will  give 
you  rest."  Now  He  si)eaks  from  Heaven.  "  Behold  I 
stand  at  the  door  and  knock  "  Surely  lhe.-e  beseeching 
tones  should  touch  your  heart  more  than  all  thunders  of 
command. 

Surely  as  the  morning  sunrise  drew  a  note  from  the 
Btony  lips  of  the  statue,  which  storm  and  thunder  could 


A  LIVING  SACRIFICE.  825 

not  awaken,  His  pleading  voice  will  bring  an  answer  that 
could  not  have  been  won  by  any  commandments,  however 
rigid,  or  by  any  threatenings,  however  severe.  "  We  beseech 
yon  that  ye  receive  not  the  grace  of  God  in  vain.'*  "Yield 
yourselves  to  God  as  those  that  are  alive  from  the  dead 
and  your  members  as  instruments  of  righteousness  to 
God,"  being  moved  thereto  by  the  mercy  of  the  Cross, 
and  won  thereto  by  the  gentle  voice  of  the  Saviour  of 
your  sooli. 


WHAT  FAITH    MAKES   OF  DEATH. 


8BRM0N   XXV. 


WHAT  FAITH  MAKES  OP  DEATH .• 

**  Ad  entrance  ministered  abandantly.    Shortly  I  miut  pnt  off  this  my  tabemAd*. 
My  decease."    2  Peter  i.  11, 14, 16. 

We  are  all  mourners  here  this  morning.  A  life  of 
practical  godliness,  of  bright  Christian  service,  and,  latterly, 
of  wonderfully  brave  endurance,  has  come  at  last  to  the 
end  to  which  we  slowly  learned  to  know  it  must  come. 
The  loving  wife,  who  was  a  helper  and  a  counsellor  as 
well,  the  staunch  loyal  friend,  the  diligent  worker,  with 
her  open  hand,  her  frank  cordiality,  her  clear  insight,  her 
resolute  will,  has  passed  from  our  sight,  but  never  from 
our  love  nor  our  memory.  The  empty  place  in  the  home 
can  only  be  filled  by  Him  that  has  made  it  empty,  and  we 
all  pray  that  He  may  be  near.  Every  member  of  this  con- 
gregation must  feel  that  a  strong  stay  has  gone.  A  wider 
circle,  for  whom  I  may  presume  to  speak,  mourns  the  loss 
of  a  dear  friend  ;  a  far  wider  one,  covering  the  whole 
country,  offers  through  my  lips  this  morning  affectionate 
and  earnest  sympathy  to  the  stricken  hearts  here  to-day. 

•  DeliTered  At  MyrtlA-itreet  Ohspel,  LlTarpool,  (on  oooMlon  of  the  daath  of  Mrt, 
Btowell  Brown.) 


330  WHAT   FAITH  MAKES  OP  DEATH. 

Butj  dear  brethren,  the  pulpit  is  not  the  place  for 
personal  eulogium,  and  I  think  I  shall  best  discharge  my 
duty  if  I  try  to  turn  our  common  sorrow  to  account  by 
setting  before  you  some  general  considerations  drawn 
from  these  three  fragments,  which  I  have  ventured  to 
isolate  from  their  connection  because  they  have  a  certain 
unity  as  being  all  euphemisms  for  one  thing.  The  Bible 
very  seldom  speaks  of  death  by  its  own  ugly  name.  It 
rather  chooses  to  use  expressions  which  veil  its  pain  and 
its  terror  ;  and  so  does  common  speech.  But  the  reason  in 
the  two  cases  is  exactly  opposite.  The  Bible  will  not  call 
death  "  death  "  because  it  is  not  a  bit  afraid  of  it ;  the 
world  will  not  call  death  "  death  "  because  it  is  so  mnoh 
afraid  of  it. 

The  Christian  view  has  robbed  it  of  all  its  pain  and  its 
terror.  It  has  limited  its  power  to  the  mere  outside  of  the 
man,  and  the  conviction  that  death  can  no  more  touch  me 
than  a  sword  can  hack  a  sunbeam,  reduces  it  to  insignifi- 
cance. These  thoughts  are  brought  out  in  these  fragment- 
ary words  which  I  ask  you  to  consider  now.  I  think  you 
will  see  that  they  lend  us  some  very  valuable  and 
gladdening  thoughts  as  to  the  aspect  in  which  Christian 
faith  should  regard  the  act  of  death. 

I  have  ventured  to  alter  their  order  for  the  sake  of  bring- 
ing together  the  two  which  are  most  closely  connected. 

I. — I  ask  you,  then,  to  look  with  me  first,  at  that  repre- 
sentation of  death  as  putting  off  the  tabernacle. 

"  Knowing  that  shortly  I  must  put  off  this  my  tabernacle* 
even  as  our  Lord  Christ  hath  showed."  There  is,  of  course 
a  reference  here  to  the  warning  which  the  Apostle  received 
from  his  Lord,  •*  signifying  what  death  he  should  die." 
He  had  learned  that  in  his  old  age  he  should  be  seized  and 
bound,  and  led  "  whither  he  would  not."  In  all  prob- 
ability the  language  of  our  verse  would  be  more  accurately 
represented  if  we  read   for  "  shortly  "   suddenly  ; — the 


WHAT  FAITH   MAKBS  OJ   DEATH.  881 

ApoBtle's  anticipation  not  being  somnch  that  his  dissolution 
was  impending  as  that  his  death  when  it  came  would  b« 
sndden, — that  is  to  say — violent.  And  therefore  he  seeks 
to  warn  and  prepare  his  brethren  beforehand. 

The  expressions  seem  to  blend  the  two  figures,  that  of  a 
tabernacle — or  tent — and  that  of  a  vesture.  As  the  Apostle 
Paul,  in  like  manner,  blends  the  same  two  ideas  when  he 
talks  of  being  "  clothed  upon  with  our  house  which  is 
from  heaven,"  and  unclothed  from  "  our  earthly  house  of 
this  tabernacle." 

To  such  small  dimensions  has  Christian  faith  dwindled 
down  the  ugly  thing,  death.  It  has  come  to  be  nothing 
more  than  a  change  of  vesture,  a  change  of  dwelling. 

Now  what  lies  in  that  metaphor  ?  Three  things  that  I 
touch  upon  for  a  moment.  First  of  all  the  rigid  limitation 
of  the  region  within  which  death  has  any  power  at  all.  It 
affects  a  man's  vesture,  his  dwelling-place,  something 
that  belongs  to  him,  something  that  wraps  him,  but  nothing 
that  is  himself.  This  enemy  may  seem  to  come  in  and 
capture  the  whole  fortress,  but  it  is  only  the  outworks 
that  are  thrown  down;  the  citadel  stands.  The  organ  is  one 
thing,  the  player  on  it  is  another  ;  and  whatever  befalls 
that  has  nothing  to  do  with  what  touches  him.  Instead  of 
an  all-mastering  conqueror,  then,  as  sense  tells  us  that 
death  is,  and  as  a  great  deal  of  modern  science  is  telling  us 
that  death  is,  it  is  only  a  powder  that  touches  the  fringe  and 
circumference,  the  wrappage  and  investiture  of  my  being, 
and  has  nothing  to  do  with  that  being  itself.  The  "  foolish 
senses  "  may  declare  that  death  is  lord  because  they  "  see 
no  motion  in  the  dead."  But  in  spite  of  sense  and  anatomist's 
scalpels,  ori^anisation  is  not  life.  Mind  and  conscience, 
will  and  love,  are  something  more  than  functions  of  the 
brain  ;  and  no  scalpel  can  ever  cut  into  self.  I  live,  and 
may  live — and  blessed  be  God  I  I  can  say — shall  live, 
apart  altogether  from  this  bodily  organisation.     Whatever 


332  WHAT  FAITH   MAKES  OP   DEATH. 

befals  it  is  only  like  changing  a  dress  or  removing  into 
another  house.     The  man  is  untouched. 

Another  thing  implied  in  this  figure,  and,  indeed,  in 
all  three  metaphors  of  our  text — is  that  life  runs  on  un- 
broken and  the  same  through  and  after  death. 

If  the  Apostle  be  right  in  his  conviction  that  the  change 
only  affects  the  circumference,  then  of  course  that  follows 
naturally.  Unbroken  and  the  same  I  The  gulf  looks  deep 
and  black  to  us  on  this  side,  but,  depend  upon  it,  it  looks 
a  mere  chink  which  a  step  can  cross,  when  seen  from  the 
other.  Like  some  of  those  rivers  that  disappear  in  a  sub- 
terranean tunnel,  and  then  emerge  into  the  light  again, 
the  life  that  sinks  out  of  sight  in  the  dark  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death  will  come  up  into  a  brighter  sunshine  be- 
yond the  mountains,  and  it  will  be  running  in  the  same 
direction  that  it  followed  when  it  was  lost  to  mortal  eye. 
For  just  as  the  dying  Stephen  knew  his  Master  again, 
when  he  saw  Him  standing  in  the  glory,  we  should  know 
our  dear  ones  after  they  had  passed  through  this  change, 
for  all  the  sweetness  and  all  the  love  would  be  there  still, 
and  nothing  would  be  gone  but  the  weakness  that  encom- 
passed them,  and  the  imperfection  that  sometimes  masked 
their  true  beauty. 

The  same  in  direction,  the  same  in  essence,  uninterrup- 
ted through  the  midst  of  the  darkness,  the  life  goes  on.  A 
man  is  the  same  whatever  dress  he  wears.  Though  we 
know  that  much  will  be  changed,  and  that  new  powers 
may  come,  and  old  wants  and  weaknesses  fall  away  with 
new  environment,  still  the  essential  self  will  be  unchanged, 
and  the  life  will  run  on  without  a  break,  and  with  scarcely 
a  deflection.  There  is  no  magic  in  the  act  of  death  which 
changes  the  set  of  a  character,  or  the  tendencies  and  desires 
of  a  nature.  As  you  die  so  you  live,  and  you  live  in  your 
death  and  after  your  death  the  same  man  and  woman  thai 
you  were  when  the  blow  f elL 


WHAT   FAITH  MAKES  OP  DEATH.  333 

So,  my  brother  if  yoa  need  it,  take  the  warning  that  lies 
in  this  truth,  and  see  to  it  that  the  right  character  is  begun 
to  be  formed  here,  for  if  it  be  not,  there  is  no  power  in 
death  to  change  its  direction. 

The  last  idea  that  is  here  in  this  first  of  onr  metaphors 
is  that  of  a  step  in  advance.  "  I  must  put  off  this  my  tab- 
ernacle." Yes  1  in  order  that  instead  of  the  nomad  tent — 
the  ragged  canvas — I  may  put  on  the  building,  the 
permanent  house  ;  in  order  that,  instead  of  the  "  vesture 
of  decay,"  I  may  put  on  the  fine  linen,  clean  and  white. 
which  is  the  righteousness  of  saints,  and  the  body  which 
is  a  fit  organ  for  the  perfected  spirit. 

True  I  that  does  not  come  at  once,  but  still  the  stripping 
off  of  the  one  is  the  preparation  for  the  investiture  with 
the  other  ;  and  there  is  advance  in  the  change.  Death  is 
as  truly  a  step  forward  in  a  life's  history  as  birth  is. 
Though  the  full  "  redemption "  of  the  body  be  not  yet 
received  by  them  who  sleep  in  Jesus,  they  wait  in  peace. 
They  are  blessed,  conscious,  lapped  in  the  rest  of  God, 
and  surely  taaght  by  Him  Who  knows  all  things,  all 
that  it  would  gladden  or  help  them  to  know  of  us  whom 
they  surely  love  still.  They  dwell  out  of  the  body,  but 
they  dwell  in  the  Lord — and  He  will  be  to  them  their 
means  of  communication  with  the  outer  universe,  eyes  to 
the  blind  and  hearing  to  the  deaf. 

Of  course  the  process  of  divesting  goes  on  at  different 
rates.  Elijah  had  his  chariot  of  fire,  Elisha  is  not  less 
favoured  when  he  falls  sick  of  the  lingering  sickness 
wherewith  he  should  die.  The  one  has  larger  means  of 
ministering  than  the  other,  and  up  to  the  last  moment 
may  teach  lessons  and  give  impulses.  Some  have  the 
privilege  given  them  like  our  dear  friend  of  putting  off 
the  garments  slowly,  and  teaching,  as  she  did,  lessons  of 
brave  patience,  and  of  how  to  bear  pain  and  weariness 
with  undimnied  sr)irit  and  unflagging  interest  in  others, 


iSM  WHAT  FAITH   MAKES  OP  DEATH. 

which  those  who  learned  them  will  keep  as  precious 
memories.  But  however  the  end  comes,  whether  the 
wind  rises  and  beats  upon  the  house,  and  it  falls  in  one 
sudden  ruin,  or  whether  it  is  slowly  unroofed  and  dis- 
mantled until  it  is  no  longer  habitable,  let  us  thank  God 
that  we  know  for  our  dear  ones  and  for  ourselves,  that 
whatever  becomes  of  the  clay  hovel  the  tenant  is  safe, 
and  has  gone  to  live  in  a  fair  house  in  a  "  distant  City 
glorious.'* 

II. — And  now  we  may  turn  to  the  remaining  two  meta- 
phors here,  which  have  a  more  close  connection  with 
each  other,  and  yet  are  capable  of  being  dealt  with  separ- 
ately.    Death  is  further  spoken  of  as  a  departure. 

"  I  will  endeavour,"  says  the  Apostle,  "  that  ye  may  be 
able  after  my  decease."  The  word  for  "decease"  here 
is  a  very  unusual  one,  as,  no  doubt,  many  of  you  know. 
It  is  employed  with  reference  to  death  only  twice  in  the 
New  Testament,  once  in  the  text  and  once  in  the  account 
of  our  Lord's  Transfiguration,  where  Moses  and  Ellas  are 
represented  as  speaking  with  Him  "  of  the  decease  that 
He  should  accomplish  at  Jerusalem."  You  may  observe 
that  immediately  after  the  last  of  my  texts,  the  Apostle 
begins  to  speak  about  that  Transfiguration,  and  makes 
definite  reference  to  what  he  had  heard  there  ;  so  that  it 
is  at  all  events  possible  that  he  selects  the  unusual  word 
with  some  reference  to,  or  some  remembrance  of,  its  use 
upon  that  occasion  in  the  narrative  of  one  of  the  Evange- 
lists. Again,  it  is  the  word  which  has  been  transferred 
into  English  as  Exodus,  and  may  possibly  be  here 
employed  with  some  allusion  to  the  departure  of  the 
children  of  Israel  from  the  land  of  bondage.  Now,  look- 
ing at  these  three  points,  the  literal  meaning  of  this  word, 
its  employment  in  reference  to  the  deliverance  from 
Egypt,  and  its  employment  in  reference  to  the  death  of 
Christ,  we  gather  from  them  valuable  consideration!. 


WHAT   FAITH   MAKES  OP  DEATH.  835 

This  aspect  of  death  shows  it  to  us  as  seen  from  this 
■ide.  Like  the  former,  it  minimiees  its  imjjortance  by 
making  it  merely  a  change  of  place — another  stage  in  a 
journey.  We  have  had  many  changes  already  ;  only  this 
is  the  last  stage,  the  last  day*s  march,  and  it  takes  us  home. 
But  yet  the  sad  thoughts  of  separation  and  withdrawal  are 
here.  These  show  us  the  saddest  aspect  of  death,  which 
no  reflection  and  no  consolations  of  religion  will  ever 
make  less  sad.  Death,  the  separator,  is,  and  must  always 
be,  an  unwelcome  messenger.  He  comes  and  lays  his 
bony  hand  upon  us,  and  unties  the  closest  embraces,  and 
draws  us  away  from  all  the  habitudes  and  associations  of 
our  lives,  and  bans  us  into  a  lonely  land. 

But  even  in  this  aspect  there  is  alleviation  if  we  will 
think  about  this  departure  in  connection  with  the  two 
uses  of  the  word  which  I  have  mentioned. 

A  change  of  place,  yes  !  an  Exod  us  from  bondage,  as  true 
a  deliverance  from  captivity  as  that  old  Exodus  was.  Life 
has  its  chains  and  limitations,  which  are  largely  due  to  the 
bodily  life  hemming  in  and  shackling  the  spirit.  It  is  a 
prison  house,  though  it  be  full  of  God's  goodness.  We 
cannot  but  feel  that,  even  in  health  and  much  more  in 
sickness,  the  bondage  of  flesh  and  sense,  of  habits  rooted 
in  the  body,  and  of  wants  which  it  feels,  weighs  heavily 
upon  us.  By  one  swift  stroke  of  Death's  hammer  the  fet- 
ters are  struck  off.  Death  is  a  Liberator,  in  the  profoundest 
sense  ;  the  Moses  that  leads  the  bondmen  into  a  desert  it 
may  be,  but  to  liberty  and  towards  their  own  land,  to  their 
rest.  It  is  the  angel  who  comes  in  the  night  to  God's 
prisoned  servant,  striking  the  fetters  from  his  limbs,  and 
leading  him  through  the  iron  gate  into  the  city.  And  so  we 
do  not  need  to  shiver  and  fear  for  ourselves  or  to  mourn  for 
our  dear  ones,  if  they  have  passed  out  of  the  bondage  of  "  cor- 
ruption into  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of  the  children  of  God." 
Death  is  a  departm-e  which  is  an  emancipation. 


336  WHAT   FAITH   MAKES  OF   DEATH. 

Again,  it  is  a  departure  which  is  conformed  to  ChrlBt's 
••  decease,"  and  is  guided  and  companioned  by  Him. 

Ah  !  There  you  touch  the  deepest  source  of  all  comfort 
and  all  strength. 

"  We  can  go  through  no  darker  roomi 
Than  He  has  gone  before." 

And  the  memory  of  His  presence  is  comfort  and  light. 
What  would  it  be,  for  instance,  to  a  man  stumbling  in  the 
polar  regions,  amidst  eternal  ice  and  trackless  wastes,  to 
come  across  the  footprints  of  a  man  ?  What  would  it  be  if 
he  found  out  that  they  were  the  footprints  of  his  own 
brother  ?  And  you  and  I  have  a  Brother's  steps  to  tread 
in  when  we  take  that  last  weary  journey  from  which  flesh 
and  sense  shrink  and  fail. 

Nor  have  we  only  the  memory  of  a  past  companionship, 
but,  blessed  be  God !  the  reality  of  a  present  Friend. 
When  all  other  ties  snap,  that  holds.  There  is  an  awful 
solitude  in  death  into  which  no  human  affection  can  find  its 
way.  It  comes  and  wraps  a  man  in  a  cloud,  through  which 
love  and  sympathy  cannot  pass,  but  its  thickest  and  misti- 
est folds  are  not  too  dense  for  Christ  to  enter.  We  may  fear 
when  we  enter  into  the  cloud  ;  and  when  our  dear  ones  go 
into  it  we  may  wring  our  hands  in  sorrow  that  our  help 
avails  so  little,  but  be  sure  they  have  found,  and  shall  find, 
Christ  in  the  heart  of  it,  and  He  will  say  to  us,  "  When  thou 
passest  through  the  waters  I  will  be  with  thee  ;  and  through 
the  floods,  they  shall  not  overwhelm  thee."  The  departure 
is  not  all  pain  if  we  travel  in  the  company  of  Jesus  Christ. 

III. — The  last  aspect  of  these  metaphors  is  that  one  con- 
tained in  the  words  of  our  first  text,  "  An  entrance  minis- 
tered abundantly."  The  going  out  is  a  going  in  ;  the 
journey  has  two  ends,  only  the  two  ends  are  so  very  near 
each  other  that  the  same  act  is  described  by  the  two  terms. 
Looked  at  from  this  side  it  is  a  going  out ;  looked  at  from 
the  other  side  it  is  a  coming  in. 


WHAT   FAITH   MAKES  OP  DEIATH.  3o7 

•*  There  is  but  a  step  betwixt  me  and  /»/<?."  One  moment, 
whilst  we  are  saying,  "  Is  he  gone  ?  "  is  enough  to  lead  the 
dying  into  the  presence  chamber  of  the  Kins?.  To  awake 
is  the  work  of  a  moment.  We  bnt  open  our  eyes,  and  the 
realm  of  dreams  falls  to  pieces  and  we  see  realities.  One 
step  crosses  the  frontier. 

If  I  had  time  I  might  dwell  npon  the  thought  which  is 
plainly  taught  us  in  this  last  of  our  texts,  of  the  close  con- 
nection and  entire  correspondence  between  the  abundance 
of  the  entrance  and  the  character  of  the  life.  "  So  an  entrance 
says  my  text, "  shall  be  ministered,"  and  that "  so  "  carries  you 
back  to  the  forcible  exhortations  in  the  early  part  of  the  chap- 
ter. The  connection  between  keeping  them  and  the  abun- 
dance of  "  the  entrance  "  is  still  more  emphasised  when  we 
know  that  the  same  word  in  a  different  form  occurs  in  the  pre- 
cept— ^'Add  to  your  faith  "  and  in  the  promise  "  An  entrance 
shall  be  ministered.''  Which  is  to  say,  in  other  words,  if  we 
take  care  to  provide  that  our  faith  is  enriched  and  increased 
with  these  graces  and  excellencies  of  Christian  character, 
then,  and  then  only,  shall  the  abundant  entrance  be  ours. 

No  question  whatever,  then,  but  that  there  is  distinctly 
laid  down  here  the  principle  that  it  is  not  all  the  same 
what  sort  of  a  Christian  a  Christian  man  or  woman  may 
be,  but  that  the  kind  of  Christian  they  are  will  tell  in  the 
kind  of  entrance  they  have  in  the  Heaven  above. 

The  smallest  faith  that  unites  a  man's  heart  with  Jesus 
Christ  makes  him  capable  of  receiving  so  much  of  sal- 
vation as  is  contained  in  the  bare  entrance  into  the 
Kingdom ;  but  every  degree  of  faith's  increase,  and  every 
degree  of  faith's  enrichment  makes  him  more  capable  of 
receiving  more  of  God  in  Christ,  and  he  will  get  all  he  can 
hold.  So  every  deed  here  on  earth  of  Christian  conduct, 
and  evpry  grace  here  on  earth  of  Christian  character,  has 
its  issue  and  its  representative  in  a  new  influx  of  the  glory 
and  a  more  intimate  possession  of  the  bliss,  and  a  more 
abundant  entrance  into  the  everlasting  Kingdom. 

S 


338  WHAT  FAITH  MAKES  OF   DEATH. 

"We  all  enter  at  the  same  gate,  but  we  are  set  at  the 
banqueting  table  in  due  order.  We  all  pass  into  the  same 
Kingdom,  but  some  of  us  may  at  once  advance  further  into 
the  land.  Be  sure,  then,  of  this,  that  as  our  faith  is  en- 
riched by  conduct  and  character,  so  our  Heaven  will  be 
enlarged  with  raptures  and  brilliancies. 

So,  when  we  see  a  life  of  which  Christian  faith  has 
been  the  underlying  motive,  and  in  which  many  graces  of 
the  Christian  character  have  been  plainly  manifested, 
passing  from  amongst  us,  let  not  our  love  look  only  at  the 
empty  place  on  eai-th,  but  let  our  faith  rise  to  the  thought 
of  the  filled  place  in  Heaven.  Let  us  not  look  down  to 
grave,  but  up  to  the  skies.  Let  us  not  dwell  on  the  de^ 
parture,  but  on  the  abundant  entrance.  Let  us  not  only 
remember,  but  also  hope.  And  as  love  and  faith,  memory 
and  hope,  follow  our  friend  as  she  passes  "  within  the 
Teil,"  let  U8  thank  God  that  we  are  sure — 

**8he,  when  the  bridegroom  Avith  his  feastfol  friendi 
PssseB  to  bliss,  at  the  mid  hour  of  night 
Has  gained  her  entrance." 

My  friends  I  This  day's  services  speak  to  each  of  you.  Can- 
not you  hear  the  "  great  Voice  saying.  Come  up  hither  1  *' 
Is  your  life  rooted  in  Jesus  Christ  ?  Have  you  given  your 
life's  service  to  Him  ?  Is  this  world  a  fleeting  show  to  you 
because  He  is  the  reality  that  you  love  and  trust  ?  Is  it  so  ? 

If  it  is,  you  may  be  always  confident,  i^ife  will  be  full 
of  power  for  work  and  gladness.  A  present  Christ  will 
comfort  you  concerning  your  dear  ones  gone  ;  and  when 
it  comes  to  your  turn  to  go,  all  the  grim  features  of  Death 
will  be  softened  down  into  solemn  beauty,  and  he,  as  God's 
messenger,  will  lead  you  for  a  moment  into  the  wilder- 
ness, and  there  speak  to  your  heart,  and  "  so  an  entrance 
shall  be  ministered  abundantly  unto  you  into  the  everlast- 
ing Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ." 

May  it  be  so  with  us  all !    Amen  1 


HOW   THE   LITTLE   MAY   BE   USED   TO   GET 
THE   GREAT. 


SERMON  XXVL 


HOW  THE  LITTLH  MAT  BE  USED  TO  GET  THE  GREAT. 


"  He  that  iB  faithful  In  tliat  which  is  least  is  faithful  also  in  much,  and  he  that  in 
uuJuHi  in  the  least  is  unjust  also  in  much.  If,  therefore,  ye  have  not  been  faiilif'.ii  in 
the  unrighteous  mammon,  who  will  commit  to  your  trust  the  true  riches  ?  And  if  ye 
have  not  been  faithful  in  that  wliich  is  auotlier  man's,  who  shall  gite  yoa  that  which 
is  your  OWQ  ?"     Luke  rvi.  10-12, 

These  are  very  revolutionary  worda  in  more  than  one 
respect.  There  are  two  things  remarkable  about  them. 
One  is  the  contrast  which  is  run  in  all  three  verses  between 
what  our  Lord  calls  "  mammon  "  (that  is,  simply  outward 
good)  and  the  inward  riches  of  a  heart  devoted  to,  and 
filled  with,  God  and  Christ.  The  former,  the  material 
good,  "  is  that  which  is  least,"  "  unrighteous,"  "  another 
man*s,"  or  leaving  out  the  word  "  man's,"  as  conveying 
a  false  idea— " another's."  The  inward  good  is  "that 
which  is  much,"  "  the  true  riches,"  "  your  own."  Christ 
upsets  the  world's  standard  of  value  as  one  might  do  who 
went  among  savages  whose  only  medium  of  cuirency 
was  cowrie-shells,  and  putting  these  aside,  let  them  see 
gold  and  silver  in  the  stones  that  were  kicked  about  by 
their  feet.  All  that  is  least  in  tlieir  eyes  is  greatest,  all 
that  is  greatest  in  their  eyes  is  trash. 

But  another  striking  thing  about  the  words  is  the  broad, 


342  HOW  THH  LITTLE  MAT  BE   USED 

bold  statement  that  a  man's  use  of  the  lower  goods  deter- 
mines, or  is  at  least  an  element  in  determining,  his 
possession  of  the  highest.  That  is  a  thing  that  Protestant 
Christians  are  shy  of  saying ;  they  seem  to  think  th?t 
somehow  or  other  it  militates  against  the  plain  teaching 
of  Scripture  that  faith  is  the  condition  of  salvation.  But 
it  is  distinctly  a  part  of  our  Lord's  teaching  here,  and  th« 
sooner  we  make  room  for  it  in  our  creeds  the  better  for 
our  practice  and  for  ourselvet. 

I. — First,  then,  I  desire  to  consider  briefly  that  strange, 
new  standard  of  value  which  is  set  up  here.  On  the  one 
side  is  placed  the  whole  glittering  heap  of  all  material  good 
that  man  can  touch  or  handle,  all  that  wealth  can  buy  of 
this  perishable  world  ;  and  on  the  other  hand  there  are 
the  modest  and  unseen  riches  of  pure  thoughts  and  high 
desii'es,  of  a  noble  heart,  of  a  life  assimilated  to  Jesus 
Christ.  The  two  are  compared  in  three  points,  as  to  their 
intrinsic  magnitude,  as  to  their  quality,  as  to  our  owner- 
ship of  them. 

Of  the  great  glittering  heap  our  Lord  says  :  **  It  is  no- 
thing, at  its  greatest  it  is  small ;"  and  of  the  other  our  Lord 
says:  "At  its  smallest  it  is  great."  Just  a  word  or  two 
about  these  antitheses.  "  Small "  and  "  great "  of  course 
are  relative  terms  ;  they  imply  a  comparison  with  each 
other,  and  imply  also  a  reference  of  both  to  a  common 
standard  of  value.  They  not  only  assert  that  earth's  good 
is  small  by  the  side  of,  and  in  comparison  with,  the  other 
class  of  good,  but  they  refer  both  the  one  and  the  other 
class  of  good  to  a  standard. 

And  what  is  the  standard  ?  If  you  have  enough  of  a 
thing  to  fill  the  vessel  which  is  meant  to  contain  it, 
you  will  call  that  quantity  great ;  if  not,  it  will  be  estima- 
ted as  little.  What  are  these  two  classes  of  good 
measured  by,  but  their  respective  power  of  filling  the 
heart  ?     Outward    good    at    its    greatest    is    amall    if 


TO  GET  THE   GREAT.  343 

■o  measured  ;  inward  good  at  its  smallest  is  great. 
The  smallest  soul  towers  above  the  biggest  fortune. 
Dives'  riches  are  all  too  small  to  satisfy  Lazarus.  All  the 
wealth  of  all  the  Rothschilds  is  too  little  to  fill  the  soul  of 
the  poorest  beggar  that  stands  by  their  carriage  door  with 
hungry  eyes.  The  least  degree  of  truth,  of  love,  of  good- 
ness, is  bigger  in  its  power  to  fill  the  heart  than  all  the 
externals  that  human  avarice  can  gather  about  it. 

Now  do  we  believe  that  ?  Do  we  order  our  lives  as  if 
we  did  believe  it  ?  Do  we  regulate  our  desires  and  wishes 
as  if  it  were  an  axiom  with  us  that  the  least  of  God  is 
more  than  the  most  of  the  world  ?  Can  we  thus  enter  into 
the  understanding  of  Christ's  scale  and  standard,  and  think 
of  all  the  external  as  "  That  which  is  least,"  and  of  all  the 
inward  as  "that  which  is  much"  ? 

The  world  looks  at  worldly  wealth  through  a  microscope 
which  magnifies  the  infinitesmally  small,  and  then  it 
looks  at  "  the  land  that  is  very  far  off  "  through  a  telescope 
turned  the  wrong  way,  which  diminishes  all  that  is  great. 
But  if  we  can  get  up  by  the  side  of  Jesus  Christ  and  see 
things  with  His  eyes  and  from  His  station,  it  will  be  as 
when  a  man  climbs  a  mountain,  and  the  little  black  line, 
as  it  seemed  to  him  when  looked  at  from  the  plain,  has 
risen  up  into  a  giant  cliff  ;  and  all  the  big  things  down 
below,  as  they  seemed  when  he  was  among  them,  have 
dwindled.  That  white  speck  is  a  palace  ;  that  bit  of  a 
green  patch  there,  over  which  the  skylark  flies  in  a  minute. 
is  a  great  lord's  estate.  Oh,  dear  brethren,  we  do  not  need 
to  wait  to  get  to  Heaven  to  learn  Heaven's  tables  of  weights 
and  measures  !  One  grain  of  true  love  to  God  is  greater  in 
its  power  to  enrich  than  a  California  of  gold.  Manchester 
men  and  women,  who  are  tempted  to  the  opposite  hereby  I 
do  yon  fix  it  in  your  mind  that  all  this  visible  is  trivial,  and 
all  the  unseen  ip  iie  great  1 

Take,   again,  the  second  antithesis,  th«  "onrighteooA 


M4  HOW  THE   LITTLB  MAY  BE  USED 

mammon"  and  "the  tme  riches."  That  word,  "nn- 
righteous  "  in  its  application  to  material  good  is  somewhat 
difficult.  I  do  not  think  that  it  means  only  a  certain  class 
of  outward  good,  namely,  that  which  is  unjustly  gotten, 
but  that  it  is  the  designation  of  the  whole.  If  we  keep 
strictly  to  the  antithesis,  "unrighteous"  must  be  the 
opposite  of  "  true."  The  word  would  then  come  to  mean 
very  nearly  the  same  as  deceitful,  that  which  betrays. 
One  can  see  that  these  two  ideas  are  closely  related,  and 
that  the  meaning  of  "  unrighteous  "  may  easily  slide  in  to 
that  of  "  deceptive  "  ;  and  probably  it  is  best  to  take  that 
as  the  meaning  of  the  word  here.  If  any  one  were  to 
contend,  however,  that  the  expression  pointed  to  the  fact 
that  all  material  wealth  has  evil  so  mixed  up  with  it  that 
though  not  in  itself  bad,  it  leads  to  all  sorts  of  unrighte- 
ousness, 80  that  it  may  be  called  in  a  somewhat  popular 
way  of  speaking,  "the  unrighteous  mammon,"  I  should 
not  dispute  it,  though  preferring  the  other  sense  which 
makes  the  word  the  exact  contrast  of  the  tnw  riches. 

And  so  we  have  presented  to  us  the  old  familiar  thought 
that  external  good  of  all  sorts  looks  to  be  a  great  deal  bet- 
ter than  it  is.  It  promises  a  great  many  things  that  it 
never  fulfils,  tempting  us  as  a  fish  is  tempted  to  the  hook 
by  a  bait  which  hides  the  hook.  It  is  "  a  juggling  fiend  " 
that  "  keeps  the  word  of  promise  to  our  ear  and  breaks  it  to 
our  hope."  No  man  ever  found  in  any  outward  good, 
when  he  got  it,  that  which  he  fancied  was  in  it  when 
he  was  chasing  after  it.  It  has  always  been  and  ever 
will  be  a  delusion  and  a  lie  to  the  man  that  trusts  it. 
But  the  inward  riches  of  faith,  true  holiness,  lofty  aspira- 
tions, Christ-directed  purposes,  all  these  are  true.  They 
promise  no  more  than  they  perform.  They  bring  more  than 
they  said  they  would.  No  man  ever  goes  to  that  well  an^  lets 
down  his  bucket  and  brings  it  up  empty.  No  man  ever 
leans  upon  that  sta£^  and  it  breaks  beneath  his  wr^lii 


TO  GET  THE  GREAT.  345 

No  man  ev^r  said  : — "  I  have  tasted  Thy  love,  and  lo  I  it 
does  not  satisfy  me  !  I  have  realised  Thy  help,  and  lo  !  it 
has  not  been  enough  !  "  What  we  have  to  say  is  : — "  Tlie 
little  I  have  tasted  rebukes  me  that  I  have  not  longed  for 
and  possessed  more,  for  it  is  sweet  beyond  all  other  sweet- 
nesses, and  strong"  beyond  all  other  strengths  ! "  The 
riches  within  are  "  tt^e  riches."  The  outward  are  like 
the  fairy  gold  in  the  old  legends  that  is  given  into  a  man's 
palm,  and  when  the  morning  comes  it  is  a  handful  of 
withered  beech  leaves.  You  get  it  and  you  are  not 
happier  than  you  were  before  you  got  it.  That  is  the  ex- 
perience of  every  man  that  makes  the  world  his  confidence. 
On  one  hand  is  the  "  unrighteous  mammon  "  that  does  not 
keep  its  promises,  that  does  not  deal  fairly  with  the  people 
who  give  themselves  up  to  it  and  trust  to  it  ;  and  on  the 
other  hand  the  true  riches." 

And  then  the  last  contrast  is  between  "  another's  "  and 
"  your  own."  Another's  ?  Well,  that  may  moan  God's  ; 
and  therefore  you  are  stewards,  as  the  whole  parable  that 
precedes  the  text  has  been  teaching.  But  I  am  not  sure 
that  that  is  the  only,  nor  indeed  the  principal  reference 
of  the  word  here.  And  I  think  when  our  Lord  speaks  of 
all  outward  possessions  as  being,  even  whilst  mine, 
another's,  He  means  to  point  there,  not  only  to  the  fact  of 
stewardship,  but  also  to  the  fact  of  the  limitations  and 
defects  of  all  outward  possessions  of  outward  good.  That 
is  to  say,  there  is  no  real  contact  between  the  outward 
things  that  a  man  has  and  himself.  The  only  things  that 
you  really  have,  paradox  as  it  sounds,  are  the  things  that 
you  are.  All  the  rest  you  hold  by  a  very  slight  tie,  liko 
the  pearls  that  are  sewn  upon  some  half -barbarous  Eastern 
magnate's  jacket,  which  he  shakes  off  as  he  walks.  So 
men  say,  "  This  is  mine  I  '*  and  it  only  means  "  it  is  not 
yours."  There  is  no  real  possession,  even  while  there  ia 
an  apparent  one,  and  just  because  there  is  no  real  contact. 


346  HOW  THE  LITTLE  MAY  BE   USED 

because  there  is  always  a  gap  between  the  man  and  his 
goods,  because  he  has  not,  as  it  were,  gathered  them  into 
himself,  therefore  the  possession  is  transient  as  well  aa 
incomplete.  It  slips  away  from  the  hand  even  whilst  you 
hold  it.  And  just  as  we  may  say,  "  There  is  no  present, 
but  everything  is  past  or  future,  and  what  we  call  the 
present  is  only  the  meeting  point  of  these  two  times,"  so 
we  may  say,  there  is  no  possession,  because  everything  is 
either  coming  into  my  hands  or  going  out  of  them,  and 
my  apparent  ownership  is  only  for  a  moment.  I  simply 
transmit : — 

" '  Twas  mine,  'tis  hia,  and  has  been  Blare  to  thouflandt." 

And  BO  it  passes. 

And  then  consider  the  common  accidents  of  life  which 
rob  men  of  their  goods,  and  the  waste  by  the  very  act  of 
use,  which  gnaws  them  away  as  the  sea  does  the  cliffs ; 
and,  last  of  all,  death's  separation.  What  can  be  taken 
out  of  a  man's  hands  by  death  has  no  right  to  be  called 
his.  Other  men  will  stand  in  this  pulpit  that  I  call  mine, 
other  men  will  sit  in  those  pews  that  you  call  yours.  I 
have  got  books  on  my  shelves  that  have  dead  men's  names 
in  them  ;  what  of  truth  and  wisdom  they  draw  from  the 
books  is  in  them  to-day  wherever  they  are,  and  is  theirs, 
but  the  book  that  was  theirs  was  never  theirs  really.  It 
is  mine  to-day,  it  will  be  somebody  else's  to-morrow. 
Each,  for  the  moment,  says  "  Mine  I  **  and  Christ  says 
•*  No  !  no  I  Another's  ! "  That  which  is  your  own  is  that 
which  you  can  gather  into  your  heart  and  keep  there,  and 
"Which  death  cannot  take  away  from  you. 

So  let  us  learn  how  to  compare  the  worth  of  these  two 
kinds  of  riches,  and  to  make  our  own  that  from 
which  "  neither  life,  nor  death,  nor  things  present,  nor 
things  to  come,  nor  any  creature  shall  be  able  to  eep^ate 
us." 

II. — Notice  for  a  moment  the  other  broad  principle  that 


TO   GET  THE  GREAT.  347 

iB  laid  down  in  these  three  verses,  as  to  the  highest  use  of 
the  lower  good. 

Our  Lord,  as  I  have  said  in  my  introductory  remarks, 
distinctly  asserts  here,  as  a  principle,  that  our  manner  of 
employing  the  lesser  goods  of  outward  possession  is  an 
element  in  determining  the  amount  of  our  possession  of 
the  highest  blessing.  And  as  I  said,  good  people  are  some- 
times chary  of  asserting  that  with  the  plain  emphasis 
with  which  it  is  here  asserted,  for  fear  they  should  damage 
the  central  truth  that  God's  mercy  and  the  gifts  of  His 
grace  come  to  men  through  faith,  not  through  their  con- 
duct. I  believe  that,  of  course,  as  being  the  fundamental 
principle  on  which  all  other  of  these  statements  of  Scrip- 
ture must  be  explained,  with  which  they  must  be  harmo- 
nised ;  and  nothing  I  have  to  say,  and  nothing  I  am  sure 
that  Jesus  Christ  wished  to  say,  militates  in  the  slightest 
degree  against  that  truth,  that  a  man  receives  into  his  heart 
"the  true  riches"  simply  on  condition  of  his  desiring 
them  and  of  his  trusting  Jesus  Christ  to  give  them. 

If  1  had  to  speak  to  a  man  that  had  no  Christian  charac- 
ter about  him  and  no  Christian  faith  in  him,  I  should  not 
begin  by  saying  to  him—"  Use  your  outward  goods  faith- 
fully and  well,  and  then  you  will  get  the  highest  good,"  if 
for  no  other  reason,  yet  for  this,  that  I  do  not  suppose  he 
could  use  them  faithfully  and  well  unless  he  had  the 
highest  good,  which  comes  to  him  by  faith. 

But  that  being  understood,  to  say  that  a  man's  conduct 
may  help  or  hinder  him  towards  the  possession  and  in  the 
exercise  of  the  faith  which  is  the  condition  of  his  possess- 
ing the  true  riches  and  highest  good,  is  no  contradiction 
to  the  central  truth  of  the  Gospel.  And  that  is  what  Jesus 
Christ  says  here.  Whether  you  are  a  Christian  man  or 
whether  you  are  not,  this  is  true  about  you,  that  the 
way  in  which  you  deal  with  your  outward  goods,  your 
■wealth,  your  capacity  of  all  sorts,  may  become  a  barrier 


348  HOW  THE  LITTLE  MAY  BE  USED 

to  your  possessing  the  higher,  or  it  may  become  a  mighty 
help. 

There  are  plenty  of  people,  and  some  of  them  listening 
to  me  now,  who  are  kept  from  being  Christians  because 
they  love  the  world  so  much.  They  have  no  desires  after 
God  or  goodness,  because  their  desires  are  engrossed  and 
absorbed  in  the  earthly  and  visible.  They  so  handle  that 
"  which  is  least "  that  it  has  taken  from  them  all  the  wish 
for  that  which  is  greatest.  They  have  lived  upon  sweet- 
meats until  their  appetite  is  so  entirely  vitiated  that  they 
do  not  want  bread.  Like  some  sea-anemone  that  gathers 
in  its  tentacles  and  shuts  itself  up  over  its  prey,  so  that 
you  cannot  shove  a  bristle  into  the  lips,  your  hearts  may 
close  over  your  earthly  good  in  such  a  fashion,  so  tight, 
and  desperate,  and  obstinate,  that  God's  grace  and  His 
proffered  gifts  have  no  chance  of  finding  their  way  into 
your  hearts  at  all.  There  are  some  of  you  of  whom  that 
is  true  to-day. 

And  is  it  not  true  about  many  Christians  that  their  too 
high  estimate  of,  and  too  great  carefulness  about,  and  too 
niggardly  disposal  of,  the  things  that  perish,  the  goods  of 
this  lower  life,  are  hindering  their  Christian  career  ?  "  Ye 
did  run  well,  what  did  hinder  you  ?  "  I  will  tell  you 
■what  is  hindering  a  great  many  of  you — what  hindered  the 
runners  in  that  old  Grecian  legend,  when  she  whom  they 
were  pursuing  cast  down  in  the  path  a  golden  apple,  and 
they  turned  aside  and  slackened  their  pace  to  catch  at  that. 
Old  men,  who  as  Christians  are  almost  dead,  and  who  can 
remember  that,  as  young  men,  before  they  had  got  on  in 
the  world,  they  were  full  of  earnest  desires  and  self-sacri- 
ficing love  to  Jesus  Christ — are  there  any  of  that  sort  here 
this  morning  ?  Christian  men  and  women  who  do  not  use 
their  wealth  for  the  highest  pui'poses  and  under  the  high- 
est responsibilities — are  there  any  of  that  sort  here  ?  Have 
you  loaded  your  souls  with  thick  clay,  and  held  the  world 


TO   GET  THE  GREAT.  349 

po  close  to  yonr  eyes,  that  though  it  be  "  that  which  is 
least  "  it  is  big  enongn  to  shut  out  that  which  is  most,  and 
which  lies  beyond  ?  Oh  I  my  brother  1  It  is  a  very  solemn 
truth,  and  you  had  better  find  room  for  it  in  your  creed, 
that  agreat  many  Christians  are  hindered  in  their  possession 
of  the  highest  good  by  their  unfaithful  use  of  the  lowest. 

The  world  thinks  that  the  highest  use  of  the  highest 
things  is  to  gain  possession  of  the  lowest  thereby,  and  that 
truth  and  genius  and  poetry  are  given  to  select  spirits  and 
are  wasted  unless  they  make  money  oui  of  them.  Christ's 
notion  of  the  relationship  is  exactly  the  opposite,  that  all 
the  outward  is  then  lifted  to  its  noblest  purpose  when  it 
is  made  rigidly  subordinate  to  the  highest ;  and  that 
the  best  thing  that  any  man  can  do  with  his  money  is  so  to 
spend  it  as  to  "purchase  for  himself  a  good  degree," 
*'  laying  up  for  himself  in  store  a  good  foundation  that  he 
may  lay  hold  on  eternal  life." 

III. — And  now  let  me  say  one  last  word  as  to  the  faith- 
fulness which  thus  utilises  the  lowest  as  a  means  of 
possessing  more  fully  the  highest. 

We  are  not  at  all  left  in  doubt  as  to  what  is  the  manner 
of  thus  employing  the  lowest  gifts.  Our  text  is  our  Lord's 
pointing  the  lesson  of  the  striking  parable  of  the  unjust 
steward.  I  gather  from  it,  as  well  as  from  other  general 
considerations,  these  three  words  which  I  desire  to  leave 
with  you  as  being  the  principles  upon  which  this  faithful 
use  of  the  lowest  class  of  goods  is  to  be  carried  out. 

You  will  be  "faithful"  if,  through  all  your  administra- 
tion of  your  possessions,  there  runs,  first,  the  principle  of 
stewardship;  you  will  be  "  faithful "  if  through  all  your 
administration  of  your  earthly  possessions  there  runs, 
second,  the  principle  of  sacrifice  ;  you  will  be  "  faithful " 
if  through  all  your  administration  of  your  earthly  posses- 
sions there  runs,  third,  the  principle  of  brotherhood. 

Stewardship. — The  consciousness   of   having   nothing 


350  HOW  THE  LITTLE  MAY  BE  USED 

that  we  have  not  received,  of  having  received  nothing  for 
our  very  own  to  be  used  according  to  our  own  will,  the 
ever-present  sense  of  obligation  to  administer  our  master's 
goods  as  he  would,  and  for  his  purposes,  must  be  clear  and 
active  in  us  if  we  are  to  be  "  faithful."  "  Of  Thine  own 
have  we  given  Thee  "  is  to  be  always  our  conviction,  for 
all  is  God's — His  before  it  was  ours,  His  whilst  it  seems 
ours,  and  His  by  a  new  right  when  we  give  it  back  to 
Him. 

One  of  the  plainest  duties  of  stewardship  is  that  we 
bring  conscience  and  deliberate  consideration  to  bear  upon 
our  administration  of  this  world's  goods.  We  are  not 
faithful  stewards  if  we  spend  according  to  our  own  whim 
and  fancy,  and  let  our  "  charity  "  depend,  as  it  so  often 
does,  on  little  better  than  accident  or  habit.  We  are 
stewards  in  regard  to  what  we  spend  on  ourselves  and  our 
families,  as  well  as  in  what  we  spend  for  purposes  beyond 
ourselves  ;  our  personal  and  domestic  expenditure,  our 
savings  and  our  gifts,  and  the  proportion  between  them 
should  all  equally  pass  under  the  inspection  of  deliberate 
conscience.  If  that  were  once  thoroughly  understood  and 
practised  by  us,  we  should  be  very  different  people,  and 
there  would  be  very  different  results  from  many  an 
appeal  thaj;  is  made  to  us.  Stewardship  means  deliberation, 
and  intelligent  consideration,  and  conscientious  disposal 
and  administration  as  of  a  fund  that  is  not  mine,  but  is  put 
into  my  hand. 

Sacrifice. — That  is  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
Christian  life,  and  it  must  be  applied  especially  in  this 
region  of  outward  possessions,  where  the  opposite  law 
of  selfishness  works  most  strongly.  How  much  owest 
thou  unto  thy  Lord  ?  All  things,  and  "  thine  own  self 
besides."  So,  touched  by  the  mercies  of  God,  we  should 
bring  in  glad  sun-ender  ourselves,  and  our  all  as  thank- 
offerings    to     Him    by  Whose    bitter    sacrifice    we    are 


TO  GET   THE   GREAT.  351 

reconciled  to  God,  and  put  in  possession  of  onrselves  and 
of  all  else.  "  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  to  receive 
riches." 

Brotherhood. — Christianity  is  not  communism,  bnt  it 
will  do  all  that  communism  tries  to  do.  Property  is  not 
theft,  but  property  selfishly  administered  is  theft.  We  are 
but  distributing  agents  and  we  have  a  right  to  take  a 
commission  and  to  support  ourselves  and  families,  but  we 
have  no  right  to  do  anything  more.  What  we  call  our 
own  is  in  this  sense,  too,  another's,  and  belongs  to  our 
brethren,  because  it,  and  they,  and  we  all  belong  to  God. 
We  get  everything  in  order  that  we  may  transmit  it  to 
others.  We  are  all  bound  together  by  such  subtle  and 
close  ties  that  each  is  laid  under  obligation  to  share  his 
portion  with  his  neighbour.  Whether  it  be  outward 
goods  or  faculties  of  the  mind  or  heart,  wisdom,  or  sym- 
pathy, or  the  yet  higher  gifts  of  the  Gospel  that  redeems, 
we  receive  that  we  may  impart — 

"The  least  flower  with  a  brimming  cup  may  stand 
And  share  its  dewdrop  with  another  near." 

These  three  principles  of  stewardship,  sacrifice  and 
brotherhood,  honestly  applied,  will  make  us  "faithful," 
and  will  make  us  capable  of  fuller  possession  of  the  true 
riches  which  God  ever  gives  as  largely  as  we  can  receive. 
Here  and  now  we  may  win  a  greater  possession  of  the 
love  and  likeness  of  God,  and  may  have  our  spirits 
widened  to  receive  more  of  all  that  makes  us  noble  and 
calm,  hopeful  and  strong,  by  our  Christian  administration 
of  earthly  goods.  And  on  the  other  hand,  we  may  so  mis- 
spend, mis-love,  and  mis-administer  them  as  that  they 
shall  be  a  clog  to  keep  us  down  and  a  mist  to  blind  our 
eyes,  that  we  may  not  rise  to  behold  the  "  King  in  His 
beauty,  and  the  land  that  is  very  far  off." 

Nor  does  the  effect  end  with  earth.     Faithful  steward- 
ship, like  all  other  true  conduct  based  upon  the  love  of 


352  HOW   THE   LITTLE   MAY   BE   USED. 

Jesus  Christ,  will  make  us  more  capable  of  a  larger  posses- 
sion of  the  life  and  the  glory  of  Grod  hereafter.  It  may 
have  been  some  earnest  Christian  worker,  who,  like  one 
that  some  of  us  mourn  to-day,  with  little  of  this  world's 
goods  to  give,  has  gone  into  some  neglected  neighbourhood 
and  there,  with  sympathy  and  effort  and  prayer,  has 
laboured ;  and  has  been  laid  in  his  grave  amidst  the 
weeping  of  those  he  had  helped  and  of  the  drunkards  he 
had  reformed.  Or,  it  may  have  been  a  prince,  who,  like 
one  that  all  England  is  mourning  to-day,  did  the  duties 
of  his  high  station,  as  we  have  reason  to  hope,  from  high 
motive  and  under  the  influence  of  Christian  principle.* 
It  may  have  been  a  poor  workman  who  spent  his  fifteen 
shillings  a  week  for  God's  glory,  and  as  a  stew^ard' ;  or  it 
may  have  been  a  millionaire  who  gave  largely  out  of  his 
abundance  to  God's  cause.  But  whoever  they  were, 
"  Blessed  are  the  dead  which  die  in  the  Lord,  for  they  rest 
from  their  labours  and  their  works  do  follow  them." 

"  Their  works  and  alms,  and  all  their  good  endeavour, 
Stayed  not  behind  nor  in  the  grave  were  trod, 
But  as  Faith  pointed  with  her  golden  rod, 
Followed  them  up  to  bliss  and  joy  for  ever." 


•  Dsk«  •!  Albany  (April.  18M^ 


Date  Due 


'-■  V  ■  vi; 

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0C14'55 

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Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  01026  2931 


